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FIRST  HUNDRED  YEARS: 

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States  of  America  Illustrated  in  its 

Four  Great  Periods. 

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The  Third.-DEVELOPMENT-WORK,    1815-1848, 

The  Fourth -ACHIEVEMENT-WEALTH,    1848-1876, 

By  C.  EDWARDS  LESTER, 

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Address.    UNITED  STATES  PUBLISHING  CO., 

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r'*4l>Y  Augustus 


CHARLES    SUMNER 


LIFE  AND  PUBLIC  SERVICES 


OF 


CHAELES  SUMMER, 


Bv  C.  EDWARDS  LESTER, 

Author  of  "  Glory  and  Shame  of  England,"    "  The  Napoleon  Dynasty," 
"  Our  First  Hiindred  Years?*  etc.,  etc. 


SOLD    ONLY    BY    SUBSCRIPTION. 


UNITED  STATES  PUBLISHING  COMPANY, 

ii  AND  13  UNIVERSITY  PLACE. 

1874. 


LOAN  STACK 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1874,  by  the 

UNITED   STATES    PUBLISHING   COMPANY, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


JOHN  F.  TROW  &  SON, 

PRINTKRS    AND    BOOKBINDERS, 

205-213  East  i2t/i  St., 

NEW   YORK. 


May  it  please  your  Excellency —  We  are  com 
manded  by  the  Senate  of  the  United  States 
to  render  back  to  you  your  illustrious  dead. 
Nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  you  dedicated 
to  the  public  service  a  man  who  was  even  then 
greatly  distinguished.  He  remained  in  it,  quick 
ening  its  patriotism,  informing  its  councils,  and 
leading  in  its  deliberations,  until  having  survived 
in  continuous  service  all  his  original  associates, 
he  has  closed  his  earthly  career.  With  reverent 
hands  we  bring  to  you  his  mortal  part,  that  it 
may  be  committed  to  the  soil  of  the  Common 
wealth,  already  renowned,  that  gave  him  birth. 
Take  it ;  it  is  yours.  The  part  which  we  do  not 
return  to  you,  is  not  wholly  yours  to  receive  ; 
nor  altogether  ours  to  give.  It  belongs  to  the 
country,  to  mankind,  to  freedom,  to  civilization, 
to  humanity.  We  come  to  you  with  emblems 
of  mourning  which  faintly  typify  the  sorrow  that 
dwells  in  the  breasts  upon  which  they  lie.  So 
much  is  due  to  the  infirmity  of  human  nature. 
But,  in  the  view  of  reason  and  philosophy,  is  it 
not  rather  a  matter  of  exultation,  that  a  life  so 
pure  in  its  personal  qualities,  so  high  in  'its  pub 
lic  aims,  so  fortunate  in  the  fruition  of  noble 
effort,  has  closed  safely  before  age  had  marred 
its  intellectual  vigor,  before  time  had  dimmed 
the  lustre  of  its  genius. 

May  it  please  your  Excellency — Our  mission 
is  completed.  We  commit  to  you  the  body  of 
Charles  Sumner.  His  undying  fame  the  Muse 
of  history  has  already  taken  in  her  keeping. 

SENATOR  ANTHONY. 


LIFE   AND   PUBLIC  SERVICES 

OF 

CHARLES  SUMNER. 


SECTION  FIRST..  ..PARENTAGE  AND  EDUCATION. 


SECTION  SECOND EUROPEAN  TRAVELS  AND  STUDIES. 


SECTION  THIRD PROFESSIONAL  LIFE. 

SECTION  FOURTH  .  ..ORATIONS  AND  POLITICAL  SPEECHES. 


SECTION  FIFTH SENATORIAL  CAREER. 

SECTION  SIXTH THE  INTERVAL  OF  ILLNESS.  AND  REPOSE. 

SECTION  SEVENTH..  ..RETURN  TO  THE  SENATE. 


SECTION  EIGHTH THE  WAR  OF  THE  REBELLION. 

SECTION  NINTH DOWNFALL  OF  SLAVERY. 

SECTION  TENTH EMANCIPATION  OF  THE  AFRICAN  RACE. 

SECTION  ELEVENTH His  LAST  GREAT  EFFORTS. 

SECTION  TWELFTH PUBLIC  HONORS  TO  His  MEMORY. 

SECTION  THIRTEENTH.,       ..His  INFLUENCE  UPON  His  AGE. 


LIFE   AND   PUBLIC   SERVICES 


OF 


CHARLES   SUMNER. 

Born  Jan.  6,  1811. — Died  March  n,  1874. 


SECTION   FIRST. 

Parentage  and  Education. 

MANY  a  grander  tribute  to  the  noble  life  of  CHARLES 
SUMNER  will  hereafter  be  paid  by  the  pen  ;  but  this  one, 
however  unworthy,  cannot  be  withheld  while  tears  of 
mingled  love  and  sorrow  are  yet  undried  upon  the  cheek 
of  the  nation.  In  private  life,  the  first  tributes  to  the 
loved  and  the  lost,  are  the  best,  because  they  are  the 
tenderest  and  most  sincere.  So,  too,  is  it  with  a  mourn 
ing  people ;  and  no  offering  of  affection  can  be  held  more 
sacred  than  that  which  flows  unbidden  from  the  bereav 
ed  heart. 

Since  the  death  of  the  Father  of  the  Republic,  which 
filled  the  country  with  grief,  and  threw  distant  nations 
into  mourning,  there  have  been  but  three  funerals  in 
America  which  bore  even  a  faint  resemblance  to  that,  in 
the  depth  and  extent  of  the  public  sorrow ;  and  these 
have  all  occurred  within  the  last  few  years: — Theyfr^ 
was  of  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  who  holds  the  next  place  to 


2  LINCOLN — GREELEY — SUMNER. 

WASHINGTON  in  the  hearts  of  our  people,  and  who  is 
enshrined  among  the  few  beloved  names  which  all  man 
kind  cherish : — 

The  second  was  of  HORACE  GREELEY,  whose  death 
revealed  so  wide-spread  and  strangely  tender  an  affec 
tion  amongst  all  classes  and  conditions  of  men  :— 

And  now  comes  the  last  name  in  this  wonderful  tri 
umvirate  of  great,  gifted,  and  good  men,  who,  taken 
together,  will  in  ages  to  come  be  mentioned  on  the 
same  historic  page,  whenever  the  leaf  is  turned  which 
records  memorials  of  the  astounding  events  which  have 
transpired  so  near  the  close  of  our  First  Hundred  Years. 

We  by  no  means  intimate  that  they  alone  will  reflect 
all  the  glory  of  their  period  ;  for  every  scene  of  activity 
and  every  field  of  achievement  has  been  illustrated  by 
loyalty,  patriotism,  and  valor,  and  they  will  long  be  re 
membered  with  honor  and  gratitude  ;  but  THESE  THREE 
NAMES  CANNOT  PERISH.  To  one  and  all  we  may  safely 
apply  the  words  which  WEBSTER  from  Bunker  Hill  ad 
dressed  to  the  soul  of  its  departed  hero  : 

"  Our  poor  work  may  perish,  but  thine  shall  endure  !  This  monument 
may  moulder  away :  the  solid  ground  it  rests  upon  may  sink  down  to  a  level 
with  the  sea  ;  but  his  memory  shall  not  fail.  Wherever  among  men  a 
heart  shall  be  found  that  beats  to  the  transports  of  Patriotism  and 
Liberty,  its  aspirations  shall  be  to  claim  kindred  with  thy  spirit." 

CHARLES  SUMNER  was  born  in  Boston,  January  6, 
1811.  He  was  fortunate  in  his  ancestry,  for  they  were 
the  best  stock  of  the  two  Englands — the  Old  and  the 
New — and  that  meant  the  best  stock  of  men  on  the  earth. 
Physically,  they  were  tall,  broad-shouldered,  strong,  fine- 
looking  men.  From  the  early  settlement  of  Massachu 
setts  Bay,  the  Sumners  had  been  distinguished  for  their 


AUSPICIOUS   BIRTH.  3 

learning,  valor,  and  public  services.  Among  them, 
INCREASE  SUMNER  had  distinguished  himself  as  one  of 
the  greatest  judges  and  governors  of  the  State.  When 
he  was  inducted  into  office,  his  personal  appearance  was 
so  imposing,  as  compared  with  HANCOCK  and  ADAMS— 
the  former  a  cripple  from  the  gout,  the  other  bowed 
down  with  infirmity — that  there  was  an  exclamation  of 
satisfaction  on  all  sides — "  Thank  God  we  have  at  last 
got  a  Governor  that  can  walk ! " 

The  late  Senator's  father,  CHARLES  PINCKNEY  SUMNER, 
maintained  the  judicial  and  scholarly  prestige  of  his  an 
cestry,  and  his  father  had  done  good  work  in  the  public 
cause  during  Colonial  and  Revolutionary  days. 

We  attach  a  good  deal  of  importance  to  these  facts  ; 
for,  however  common  it  may  be  in  Democracies,  to  speak 
slightingly  of  noble  descent,  yet  all  men  of  sense  are  well 
aware  that  nothing  more  valuable  can  be  inherited  than 
good  sound  blood — strong,  healthy  constitutions, — ample 
and  vigorous  frames,  well  put  together, — unless  indeed 
it  may  be — what  is  so  generally  allied  to  all  these  quali 
ties — strong,  healthy  brains,  vigorous  intellect,  and  manly 
character.  But,  when  to  all  this  are  joined  habits  of 
learning,  graces  of  scholarship,  dignified  manners,  broad 
intelligence,  familiarity  with  public  affairs,  the  respect  of 
their  fellow-men,  with  high  standing  in  good  society, 
and  enough  of  fortune — lands  and  money — to  command 
all  the  advantages  which  a  competency  of  this  world's 
goods  can  bestow;  it  would  be  strange  indeed  if,  from 
such  sources,  strong  characters  should  not  grow  up.  It 
was  under  such  auspices  that  CHARLES  SUMNER'S  boy 
hood  began,  and  the  ripened  fruit  of  all  this  auspicious 
planting  showed  itself  throughout  his  well-rounded  life. 

From  the  first  colonizing  of  the  country,  Massachu- 


4  ACADEMIC   AND    UNIVERSITY    COURSE. 

setts  Bay  had  planted  institutions  of  learning,  and  nur 
tured  them  with  the  utmost  care.  In  less  than  twenty 
years  from  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims,  the  foundations 
of  Harvard  College  had  been  laid,  and  her  teachers 
were  among  the  most  learned  men  of  England.  The 
common  schools  of  the  Colony  were  then  the  best  in 
the  world,  those  of  Boston  leading  the  way.  At  the 
time  CHARLES  SUMNER'S  education  began,  these  common 
schools  had  grown  to  be  so  excellent,  that  JOHN  QUINCY 
ADAMS  said  if  he  had  as  many  sons  as  King  Priam, 
he  would  send  them  all  to  the  district  school.  In  his 
tenth  year  he  entered  the  Public  Latin  School  of 
Boston,  where  he  began  his  preparation  for  maturer 
studies,  carrying  away  from  all  rivals  the  prizes  for 
English  composition  and  Latin  poetry,  besides  gaining 
medals  for  distinction  in  other  departments.  His  final 
preparation  for  college  was  completed  at  the  Phillips 
Academy,  when  he  entered  the  University,  where  a 
brilliant  list  of  SUMNERS  on  the  scrolls,  stretched  through 
more  than  a  hundred  years. 

Having  formed  thorough  habits  of  study,  he  easily 
surmounted  every  difficulty  that  lay  in  his  way,  and 
being  graduated  with  honor  in  1830,  he  still  continued 
his  studies,  with  the  aid  of  private  tutors,  for  another 
year,  when  he  entered  the  law  school  at  Cambridge, 
under  the  special  encouragement  of  Judge  STORY,  who 
formed  for  him  a  deep  attachment,  which  grew  more 
earnest  and  genial  to  the  end  of  that  great  man's  life. 
He  predicted  for  his  protege  the  earliest  and  highest 
success  as  a  jurist,  remarking  that  he  had  never  seen  a 
young  man  so  readily  master  the  profound  principles  of 
law.  From  early  boyhood  History  had  for  him  a 
special  fascination.  He  loved  investigation  for  its  own 


PRACTICE   OF    LAW.  5 

sake  so  well,  that  almost  insensibly  to  himself  he  be 
came  the  best  historical  student  of  his  time ;  and  this 
alone  can  account  for  the  endless  wealth  of  illustration 
he  had  stored  up  for  future  use  in  public  life.  Having 
the  Law  Library  under  his  control  as  its  librarian,  he 
could  lay  his  hand  instantly  upon  any  volume,  and  he 
amazed  the  ripe  jurists  around  him  with  the  enormous 
extent  and  minuteness  of  his  learning.  He  seemed  to 
make  an  exhaustive  study  of  every  subject  that  came 
before  him.  The  text-books  which  filled  the  scope  of 
study  for  his  associates,  were  but  guides  for  him  to 
broader  and  deeper  explorations. 

During  his  law  studies  he  wrote  several  articles  for 
The  American  Jurist,  of  which  he  subsequently  be 
came  editor.  Being  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1834,  he  found 
himself  suddenly  launched  into  a  successful  and  lucrative 
practice,  which  even  with  able  men,  had  been  considered 
the  reward  only  of  long  years  of  patient  industry  and 
assiduous  application.  He  was  soon  appointed  Reporter 
of  the  United  States  Circuit  Court,  over  which  Judge 
STORY  presided ;  and  his  three  volumes  of  that  jurist's 
decisions,  made  him  as  well-known  to  the  lawyers  of 
England  as  he  was  at  home.  In  fact,  he  soon  reached 
so  hiofh  a  standing-,  that  he  delivered  lectures  before  the 

o  o ' 

Law  School,  in  the  absence  of  either  Judge  STORY  or 
Professor  GREEN  LEAF;  and  with  so  much  acceptance 
that,  by  the  advice  of  those  eminent  men,  he  was  invited 
to  the  chair  of  a  Professor  in  the  institution.  But,  regard 
ing  all  he  had  hitherto  done  as  only  preliminary  to  larger 
attainments,  he  unhesitatingly  declined  the  honor.  The 
learned  ANDREW  DUNLAP  had  before  this  written  "  A 
Treatise  on  the  Practice  of  the  Courts  of  Admiralty  in 
Civil  Causes  of  Maritime  Jurisdiction,"  but  was  prevented 


6  EUROPEAN    TRAVELS    AND    STUDIES. 

by  illness  from  bringing  it  out.  The  editorship  of  it  was 
committed  to  Mr.  SUMNER,  who  received  from  the  author 
on  his  death-bed,  the  most  unqualified  and  grateful 
praise  for  the  manner  in  which  he  had  performed  his 
task. 

The  young  lawyer  had  now  entered  upon  a  brilliant 
career,  with  prospects  that  would  have  gratified  the  am 
bition  of  almost  any  other  man.  But  with  a  loftier  ambi 
tion,  he  threw  up  his  practice,  to  visit  Europe,  where  he 
could  pursue  his  studies  to  greater  advantage,  and  care 
fully  survey  the  structure  of  society  and  government  in 
the  old  world.  Unrestricted  in  means,  he  could  travel 
as  far,  or  reside  as  long,  as  he  pleased. 


SECTION  SECOND. 

European  Travels  and  Studies. 

HE  sailed  for  England,  with  letters  of  introduction  from 
Judge  STORY  and  many  distinguished  Americans,  to  the 
most  eminent  jurists  and  public  men  of  Europe.  Judge 
STORY,  in  particular,  had  requested  Lord  BROUGHAM. 
then  Lord  Chancellor,  to  afford  him  the  means  of  witness 
ing  most  advantageously,  the  proceedings  of  the  Courts 
of  Westminster  Hall,  and  observe  the  workings  of  the 
British  Constitution  in  every  'department  of  the  Govern 
ment.  It  is  not  surprising  that  with  his  high  attainments, 
and  with  such  letters,  he  was  warmly  received  by  the 
great  men  of  England,  and  everywhere  treated  as  a  com 
panion,  and  a  guest.  He  was  invited  to  a  seat  on  the 
bench  in  every  court  he  entered.  There  was  not  a  book, 


FRANCE— GERMANY — ITALY.  7 

manuscript,  or  authority  in  a  public  or  private  library  of 
England,  that  was  not  at  his  command ;  everybody  was 
ready  to  assist  him  in  his  more  recondite  researches  ; 
and  for  a  whole  Session  he  was  an  attentive  listener  to 
the  debates  of  Parliament. 

It  was  the  same  in  Paris,  where,  a  perfect  French 
scholar,  he  was  in  constant  attendance  in  the  Chamber 
of  Deputies,  frequently  visiting  the  lecture-rooms  of  the 
Sorbonne,  and  the  College  of  France,  all  of  whose  Pro 
fessors  acceded  to  his  slightest  wish  to  aid  him  with  the 
fruits  of  their  learning  and  experience. 

General  CASS,  then  our  minister  to  France,  was  en 
gaged  in  the  investigation  of  our  claim  to  the  North 
eastern  Boundary,  and  at  his  request,  Mr.  SUMNER  wrote 
that  celebrated  Treatise  on  the  subject,  which  excited 
such  great  admiration  in  this  country. 

He  went  through  Germany,  with  the  same  objects  in 
view ;  and  being  master  of  that  language  also,  he  accu 
mulated  vast  stores  of  learning  by  conversations  with 
the  great  scientists  and  statesmen  of  that  nation.  He 
afterwards  extended  his  journey  to  Italy,  where  again 
his  ripe  scholarship,  in  that  most  beautiful  of  all  modern 
tongues,  multiplied  his  facilities  for  acquisition,  and  en 
hanced  greatly  the  charms  of  his  visit. 

But  his  objects  were  not  limited  to  the  acquisition  of 
mere  learning.  Endowed  by  nature  with  a  delicate 
sense  of  the  beautiful,  and  having  an  intense  relish  for 
society,  he  often  said  that  it  was  impossible  for  him  to 
give  to  ordinary  persons  anything  like  an  adequate  idea 
of  the  exquisite  pleasure  he  experienced  in  studying  Art  in 
the  best  galleries  of  Europe,  and  enjoying  the  society  of 
its  most  learned  and  gifted  men  and  women.  These 
few  years  he  always  looked  back  upon  as  the  most  use- 


8  LEGAL  AUTHORSHIP. 

ful  and  delightful  of  his  life.  He  once  said  to  me  that 
the  memory  of  those  days  often  broke  upon  his  mind 
like  fresh  fountains  amidst  the  sterility  of  years. 

During  this  period,  he  commenced  to  gather  whatever 
objects  of  art  and  beauty  suited  his  refined,  artistic  taste ; 
and  it  grew  into  the  beautiful  collection  he  finally  made, 
which  was  a  source  of  so  much  pleasure  to  himself  and 
his  friends,  and  imparted  a  nameless  charm  to  his  library- 
home.  He  had  a  special  passion  for  engravings,  of  which 
his  was  doubtless  the  finest  private  collection  in  this 
country. 


SECTION  THIRD. 

Professional  Life. 

IN  1840  Mr.  SUMNER  returned  from  what  would  have 
been  to  most  men  only  a  long  holiday  of  pleasure,  but 
which  to  him  had  been  a  University  life  and  a  holiday, 
all  blended  in  one ;  and,  after  a  few  hearty  hand 
shakings,  he  dashed  again  with  all  his  fervor  into  the 
study  of  the  science  of  law,  and  its  engrossing  practice. 
Again  he  became  Lecturer  at  the  Law  School,  and 
before  1846  he  had  edited,  with  matchless  ability, 
Veseys  Reports,  in  twenty  volumes.  The  learning  he 
displayed  in  this  labor  was  immense ;  for  it  was  by  no 
means  confined  to  verbal,  or  even  judicial  criticism. 
The  volumes  were  enlivened  by  vivid  and  captivating 
biographical  sketches  of  great  lawyers  and  jurists, 
besides  apt,  fresh,  and  learned  annotations.  It  would 
be  difficult  to  find  another  instance,  in  any  country,  of 


MR.    SUMNER    IN    HIS    STUDY. 


ORATIONS   AND   SPEECHES.  9 

so  mature  and  splendid  a  reputation  won  at  so  early  an 
age,  for  he  had  not  reached  his  thirty-fifth  year. 

But  Charles  Sumner's  life-career  had  not  yet  com 
menced.  Shining  as  was  the  structure  he  had  already 
reared,  none  knew  the  depths  of  the  foundations  he 
had  been  laying.  This  ornate  edifice  of  a  dazzling 
reputation  was  soon  to  give  way  for  a  structure  of 
more  colossal  proportions,  which  was  to  grow  larger 
and  grander  every  year;  and  which,  although  it  had  so 
often  seemed  complete,  yet  in  his  own  judgment  was  still 
left  unfinished  when  he  was  so  suddenly  summoned 
away.1 


SECTION  FOURTH. 

Orations  and  Political  Speeches. 

I. 

MR.  SUMNER'S  political  life  was  now  to  begin,  and  he 
chose  for  its  opening  the  occasion  of  the  National  Anni 
versary  of  1844,  which  was  to  be  observed  in  Boston 
with  unusual  interest.  A  brief  glance  at  the  state  of 
public  affairs  at  the  time,  will  faintly  show  what  signifi 
cance  there  was  in  the  choice  of  the  orator,  and  what  im 
portant  results  were  to  follow  his  startling  utterances. 

American  slavery  was  then  in  the  zenith  of  its  fearful 

1  With  a  flippancy  which  hardly  became  a  sacred  place,  and  with  a  superficiality  of 
judgment  that  was  hardly  expected,  even  from  such  a  quarter,  and  while  the  dead 
Senator's  body  was  resting  in  this  city,  on  its  way  to  the  grave,  the  remark  was 
made  from  a  celebrated  pulpit,  that  he  had  lived  three  years  too  long.  It  is  a 
matter  of  sincere  congratulation,  among  men  who  entertain  a  different  opinion,  that 
the  Supreme  Council  that  determined  that  matter  was  not  swayed  by  the  popular 
declaimer  who  made  the  remark. 


10  THE   SLAVE   POWER. 

and  unthreatened  reign.  It  held  the  whole  nation 
bound  hand  and  foot.  It  dictated  every  law  passed  by 
Congress,  and  inspired  every  measure  adopted  in  the 
Cabinet.  It  controlled  the  Press  of  a  free,  and  exulted 
in  the  sanction  of  the  Pulpit  of  a  Christian,  nation.  It 
was  extending  its  dark  shadow  over  soil  then  free,  and 
claiming  its  inhuman  jurisdiction  over  every  Northern 
hearth-stone.  It  unblushingly  boasted  that  it  would  one 
day  call  the  slave-roll  on  Bunker  Hill — And  why  should 
the  menace  seem  so  unmeaning  ?  Had  not  Boston  seen 
William  Lloyd  Garrison,  the  chief  apostle  of  freedom, 
dragged  through  her  streets  with  a  halter  about  his 
neck,  within  sight  of  that  column  of  Liberty,  with  scarce 
a  protest  from  her  opulent  and  polite  citizens  ?  Had  not 
the  Governor  and  Legislature  of  Georgia  set  a  price 
upon  the  head  of  that  prophet  of  the  coming  dispensa 
tion  of  freedom ;  and  should  not  the  Northern  Athens 
obey  the  behest  of  her  cotton  king  ? 

African  Slavery  had  become  as  sacred  in  the  pre 
cincts  of  Faneuil  Hall,  as  it  was  in  the  slave-den  of 
Washington,  where  the  sound  of  the  auctioneer's  hammer 
knocking  down  men,  women,  and  children  to  the  highest 
bidder,  could  be  heard  from  the  steps  of  the  Capitol 
itself.  More  slave  property  was  owned  in  Boston  than 
in  Charleston — abolitionist  was  as  odious  a  name  in  Bea 
con  Street  as  it  was  in  the  St.  Charles  Hotel  in  New  Or 
leans — SLAVERY  HAD  BECOME  THE  LAW  OF  THE  GREAT 
REPUBLIC. 

How  then  could  Boston  regard  any  word  of  irreverence 
towards  that  all-powerful  Institution,  as  less  than  a  de 
claration  of  war  a  I  entrance  against  the  slaveholdinof 

o  o 

States  ?     And   to  inflame  the  indignity,  these  insulting 
words  had  been  uttered  by  one  of  the  most  brilliant  and 


TRUE   GRANDEUR   OF  NATIONS.  II 

admired  of  her  own  long-descended  aristocrats  !  What 
could  not  be  tolerated,  even  in  so  plebeian  a  fanatic  as 
Garrison,  no  longer  than  a  rope  could  be  thrown  to  a 
howling  mob,  rose  when  coming  from  the  lips  of  the 
eloquent  and  travelled  young  patrician,  the  most  atrocious 
blasphemy  against  God  and  the  Constitution  !  And  yet 
his  great  theme  was  "The  True  Grandeur  of  Nations," 
and  the  burden  of  his  oration  was  Peace, — an  oration 
which  Cobden,  the  most  eloquent  advocate  of  peace  in 
Europe,  pronounced  "  the  noblest  contribution  ever 
made  by  any  modern  writer  to  the  cause  of  peace."  But 
it  gave  offence  to  the  magnates  of  the  Whig  Party  in 
Massachusetts,  since  it  was  known  that  they  were  fast 
drifting,  body  and  soul,  into  the  embraces  of  the  slave- 
power,  which  was  demanding  fresh  aggressions  upon  the 
territory  of  Mexico,  with  a  view  to  wrest  from  her  some 
of  her  fairest  possessions,  to  be  devoted  to  the  demon 
of  human  servitude.  Mr.  Sumner  early  foresaw  that 
this  would  end  in  a  collision  with  our  sister  republic,  and 
which,  under  the  dictation  of  the  slave  oligarchy,  would 
be  attended  with  outrages  and  injustice.  The  Whigs 
had  been  greatly  weakened  by  the  death  of  Harrison, 
and  the  wavering  policy,  and  final  defection  of  John 
Tyler  ;  and  the  Democrats,  preparing  to  regain  their  lost 
power,  were  also  ready  to  bid  for  the  pro-slavery  vote. 
Thus  both  parties  would  hold  up  their  hands  for  any 
measure  that  would  give  them  votes,  no  matter  how 
great  the  demolition  of  principle. 

II. 

IN  this  oration,  Mr.  Sumner  uttered  the  memorable 
declaration  which  went  through  the  world : — "  In   our 


12  INDICATIONS   OF   POLITICAL  PRINCIPLES. 

age,  there  can  be  no  peace  that  is  not  honorable ;  there 
can  be  no  war  that  is  not  dishonorable."  We  shall  give 
no  space  here  to  any  part  of  that  oration,  since  other 
speeches  on  the  same  subject  were  elicited  by  subse 
quent  occasions,  when  his  prophecies  were  fast  becom 
ing  history,  by  the  anticipations  of  war  with  Mexico 
being  turned  into  the  most  active  hostilities.  But  a 
careful  reading  of  that  oration,  which  marked  Mr.  Sum- 
ner's  first  appearance  before  the  country  as  a  public 
man,  will  satisfy  any  student  of  his  Speeches,  that  on 
this  Fourth  of  July,  1844,  he  gave  clear  indications  of 
the  policy  he  was  to  pursue  in  future  life.  Nor  could  a 
prophet  have  marked  out  with  greater  clearness,  than 
the  historian  could  afterwards,  the  course  Mr.  Sumner 
would  take  in  whatever  crisis  might  arise,  involving  the 
fortunes  of  freedom,  or  of  peace,  in  the  coming  struggles 
of  parties. 

Another  point  should  here  be  observed,  for  it  gave 
an  index  to  his  character  which  distinguished  him  ever 
afterwards  from  nearly  all  the  prominent  men  who  were 
to  flourish  during  the  approaching  times  of  excitement 
and  trouble.  We  speak  of  his  inflexibility  of  purpose; 
his  steady  persistence  in  opposing  at  any  and  at  all 
hazards,  whatever  he  believed  to  be  morally,  socially, 
or  politically  wrong, — his  absolute  insensibility  to  oppo 
sition  or  criticism,  come  from  what  quarter  they  might ; 
and  the  admirable  and  absolutely  unparalleled  steadi 
ness  with  which  he  pursued  the  great  objects  of  his 
life. 

He  then  began  to  experience,  what  he  had  so  many 
occasions  to  encounter — the  criticisms  of  his  friends,  as 
well  as  the  assaults  of  his  enemies ;  the  one  scarcely 
exceeding  in  bitterness  the  cold  reproofs,  or  only  half- 


SUMMER'S  TRIALS  OF  CHARACTER.  13 

concealed  satire  of  the  others.  Without  a  single  excep 
tion,  no  man  in  our  history  has  had  to  pass  through 
such  ordeals  as  CHARLES  SUMNER.  Whenever  a  new 
crisis  rose  in  the  country,  he  was  found  marching  way 
ahead  of  the  friends  who  had  so  reluctantly  just  come 
up  to  the  last  position  he  had  taken;  and  thus  they 
were  continually  falling  off  from  him,  one  by  one,  all 
the  time ;  and  sometimes  whole  battalions  of  them 
together. 

But  with  the  single  exception  of  the  Supplemental 
Civil  Rights  Bill,  which  caused  him  almost  the  only  lin 
gering  regret  he  had  in  dying  so  soon,  he  lived  to  see 
every  public  measure  he  had  proposed  involving  a  great 
principle  of  liberty,  either  fully  incorporated  into  the 
Amended  Constitution,  or  fairly  expressed  in  some  sta 
tute  that  was  never  afterwards  to  be  repealed.  And  yet 
he  seldom  rose  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate  to  announce 
for  the  first  time  a  new  step  in  advance,  without  finding 
himself  nearly  alone ;  generally  without  supporters ; 
sometimes  without  one  : — and  all  through  this  protracted 
struggle  for  principle,  he  was  not  only  subject  to  the 
violent  persecution  of  the  public  press,  and  the  desertion 
of  personal  friends,  but  the  object  of  official  insults,  and 
even  attempts  at  Senatorial  degradation.  Thus  in  trac 
ing  his  career,  we  shall  mark  these  points  as  we  pass  by 
them,  only  indicating  them  now  in  brief,  that  the  reader 
may  bear  in  mind  these  strong  attributes  of  Mr.  SUM- 
NER'S  character,  to  enable  him  more  fully  to  comprehend 
how  arduous  was  his  warfare,  how  immovable  was  his 
integrity,  how  sublime  was  his  faith  ;  how  he,  more  than 
any  other  man  in  our  history,  illustrated  what  was  so 
well  applied  to  BURKE,  that  "  he  never  gave  up  to  party 
what  was  meant  for  mankind." 


14  HE  JOINS  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY   SOCIETY. 


III. 


Although  Mr.  Sumner  had  not  yet  taken  any  prominent 
part  in  the  anti-slavery  movement,  of  which  Boston  was 
the  chief  centre,  yet,  as  early  as  1838  he  had  become  a 
member  of  the  Massachusetts  Anti-Slavery  Society,  and 
had  fully  made  known  his  hostility  to  slavery.  But  he 
differed  widely  with  Mr.  GARRISON,  who  cast  off  all  alle 
giance  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  on  the 
ground  that  it  sanctioned  slavery ;  while  Mr.  SUMNER 
was  determined  to  fight  the  battle  inside  of  the  Constitu 
tion  ;  declaring,  in  the  most  unqualified  terms,  that  this 
sacred  instrument  was  hostile  to  slavery  in  all  respects 
—that  it  was  established  in  the  spirit  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  which  he  regarded  as  the  charter  of 
perpetual  liberty  to  the  nation.  He  insisted  that  while  the 
Constitution  did  recognize  the  existence  of  involuntary 
servitude,  and  conceded  temporarily  certain  privileges 
to  slaveholders,  yet,  that  the  founders  of  the  Instrument 
had  no  belief  in  the  perpetuity  of  slavery  ;  and,  therefore, 
he  considered  it  to  be  sound  policy  to  carry  on  the  war 
against  slavery,  under  the  shield  of  the  Constitittion. 
Hence  he  gave  to  the  Party  the  watch-word  which  was 
everywhere  inscribed  upon  their  banners,  "  THE  REPEAL 
OF  SLAVERY  UNDER  THE  CONSTITUTION  AND  LAWS  OF 
THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT." 

IV. 

In  the  first  address  he  delivered  on  a  plan  of  action 
with  a  view  to  the  ultimate  abolition  of  slavery,  he  said, 
in  Faneuil  Hall,  Nov.  4th,  1845: 


CONSTITUTIONAL   HOSTILITY   TO   SLAVERY.  15 

The  time  has  passed  when  this  can  be  opposed  on  constitutional 
grounds.  It  will  not  be  questioned  by  any  competent  authority  that 
Congress  may,  by  express  legislation,  abolish  slavery,  first,  in  the  Dis 
trict  of  Columbia  ;  second,  in  the  Territories,  if  there  should  be  any  ; 
third,  that  it  may  abolish  the  slave  trade  on  the  high  seas  between  the 
States  ;  fourth,  that  it  may  refuse  to  admit  any  new  State  with  a  consti 
tution  sanctioning  slavery.  Nor  can  it  be  doubted  that  the  people  of 
the  free  States  may,  in  the  manner  pointed  out  by  the  Constitution, 
proceed  to  its  amendment. 

There  is  in  the  Constitution  no  compromise  on  the  subject  of  slavery 
of  a  character  not  to  be  reached  legally  and  constitutionally,  which  is  the 
only  way  in  which  I  propose  to  reach  it.  Wherever  power  and  jurisdic 
tion  are  secured  to  Congress,  they  may  unquestionably  be  exercised  in 
conformity  with  the  Constitution.  And  even  in  the  matters  beyond  exist 
ing  powers  and  jurisdiction  there  is  a  constitutional  mode  of  action.  The 
Constitution  contains  an  article  pointing  out  how,  at  any  time,  amend 
ments  may  be  made  thereto.  This  is  an  important  article,  giving  to  the 
Constitution  a  progressive  character,  and  allowing  it  to  be  moulded  to 
suit  new  exigencies  and  new  conditions  of  feeling.  The  wise  framers  of 
this  instrument  did  not  treat  the  country  as  a  Chinese  foot,  never  to 
grow  after  its  infancy,  but  anticipated  the  changes  incident  to  its  .growth. 

But  it  was  not  until  November  4,  1845,  that  he  took 
his  final  position  on  the  subject ;  and  this  he  did  in  ad 
dressing  a  mass-meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall,  against  the  an 
nexation  of  Texas.  In  the  opening  of  that  speech,  to 
every  sentence  of  which  the  future  was  to  impart  strange 
significance,  he  paid  a  graceful  tribute  to  the  chairman, 
Hon.  JOHN  G.  PALFREY, — then  Secretary  of  the  Common 
wealth, — for  an  act  which  won  for  him  universal  respect, 
and  admiration,  viz.,  the  manumission  of  a  body  of  slaves 
that  had  descended  to  him  by  inheritance,  and  whom  he 
had  "  conducted  far  away  from  slavery,  into  these  more 
cheerful  precincts  of  freedom."  "  By  this  act,"  said  Mr. 
SUMNER,  "  he  has  done  as  a  citizen,  what  Massachusetts 
is  now  called  upon  to  do  as  a  State — divest  herself  of 
all  responsibility  for  any  occasion  of  slave  property." 


l6  ADMISSION    OF   TEXAS    OPPOSED. 

In  approaching  his  subject,  he  spoke  of  "  occasions  in 
the  progress  of  affairs  when  the  attention  of  all,  though 
ordinarily  opposed  to  each  other,  is  arrested ;  and  even 
the  lukewarm,  the  listless,  the  indifferent,  unite  heartily  in 
a  common  object.  Such  is  the  case  in  great  calamities, 
when  the  efforts  of  all  are  needed  to  avert  a  fatal  blow.  If 
the  fire-bells  startle  us  from  our  slumbers,  we  do  not  ask 
of  what  faith  in  politics  or  religion  is  the  unfortunate 
brother  who  is  exposed  to  destruction.  It  is  enough 
that  there  is  misfortune  to  be  averted.  In  this  spirit,  we 
have  assembled,  putting  aside  all  distinctions  of  party, 
forgetting  all  disagreements  of  opinion,  renouncing  all 
discords,  only  to  cling  to  one  ground  on  \vhich 'we  all 
meet  in  concord — I  mean  opposition  to  the  admission  of 
Texas  as  a  slave  State." 

The  scheme  for  the  annexation  of  Texas,  he  continued,  begun  in 
stealth  and  fraud,  and  with  the  view  to  extend  and  strengthen  slavery, 
has  not  yet  received  the  final  sanction  of  Congress.  Even  according 
to  the  course  pursued  by  the  framers  of  this  measure,  it  is  necessary 
that  Texas  should  be  formally  admitted  into  the  family  of  States  by  a 
vote  of  Congress,  and  that  her  Constitution  should  be  approved  by 
Congress.  The  question  on  this  measure  will  arise  this  winter,  and  we 
would,  if  we  could,  strengthen  the  hands  and  the  hearts  of  the  friends 
of  freedom  by  whom  the  measure  will  be  opposed. 

Ours  is  no  factious  or  irregular  course.  It  has  the  sanction  of  the 
highest  examples  on  a  kindred  occasion.  In  1819,  the  question  now 
before  us  arose  on  the  admission  of  Missouri  as  a  slave  State.  I  need 
not  remind  you  of  the  ardor  and  constancy  with  which  this  was  opposed 
at  the  North,  by  men  of  all  parties,  with  scarcely  a  dissenting  voice. 
One  universal  chorus  of  protests  thundered  from  the  Free  States  against 
the  formation  of  what  was  called  another  black  State.  Meetings  were 
convened  in  all  the  considerable  towns— in  Philadelphia,  Trenton, 
New  York,  New  Haven,  and  everywhere  throughout  Massachusetts,  in 
order  to  give  expression  to  this  opposition  in  a  manner  to  be  audible 
on  the  floor  of  Congress.  At  Boston,  on  December  3d,  1819,  a  meet 
ing  was  held  in  the  State-house,  without  distinction  of  party,  and  em- 


OPPOSITION   TO   ADMISSION   OF   MISSOURI.  I/ 

bracing  the  leaders  of  both  sides.  That  meeting,  in  its  objects,  was 
precisely  like  this  now  assembled.  A  large  committee  was  appointed 
to  prepare  resolutions.  Of  this  committee,  William  Eustis,  afterwards 
Governor  of  Massachusetts,  was  chairman.  With  him  were  associated 
John  Phillips,  at  that  time  President  of  the  Senate  of  Massachusetts — 
a  name  dear  to  every  friend  of  the  slave  as  the  father  of  him  to  whose 
eloquent  voice  we  hope  to  listen  to-night — Timothy  Bigelow,  Speaker 
of  the  House  of  Representatives,  William  Gray,  Henry  Dearborn, 
Josiah  Quincy,  Daniel  Webster,  William  Ward,  of  Medford,  William 
Prescott,  Thomas  H.  Perkins,  Stephen  White,  Benjamin  Pickman, 
William  Sullivan,  George  Blake,  David  Cummings,  James  Savage,  John 
Gallison,  James  T.  Austin,  and  Henry  Orne.  A  committee,  more 
calculated  to  inspire  the  confidence  of  all  sides, *could  not  have  been 
appointed.  Numerous  as  were  its  members,  they  were  all  men  of 
mark,  high  in  the  confidence  and  affections  of  the  country.  This  com 
mittee  reported  the  following  resolutions,  which  were  adopted  by  the 
meeting  : — 

Resolved,  As  the  opinion  of  this  meeting,  that  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  possess  the  constitutional  power  upon  the  admission  of 
any  new  State  created  beyond  the  limits  of  the  original  territory  of  the 
United  States,  to  make  the  prohibition  of  the  further  extension  of 
slavery,  or  involuntary  servitude,  in  such  new  State,  a  condition  of  its 
admission. 

Resolved,  That,  in  the  opinion  of  this  meeting,  it  is  just  and  ex 
pedient  that  this  power  should  be  exercised  by  Congress  upon  the 
admission  of  all  new  States,  created  beyond  the  original  limits  of  the 
United  States. 

The  meeting  in  Boston  was  followed  by  one  in  Salem,  called,  accord 
ing  to  the  terms  of  the  notice,  "to  consider  whether  the  immense 
region  of  country  extending  from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Pacific  Ocean 
is  destined  to  be  the  abode  of  Happiness,  Independence,  and  Freedom, 
or  the  wide  prison  of  misery  and  slavery"  Resolutions  against  the 
admission  of  any  slave  State  were  passed,  being  supported  by  Benjamin 
T.  Pickman,  Andrew  Dunlap,  and  Joseph  Story,  a  name  of  authority 
wherever  found. 

By  these  assemblies,  the  Commonwealth  was  aroused.  It  opposed 
an  unbroken  front  to  slavery. 

Twenty-five  years  have  passed  since  these  efforts  in  the  cause  of 
freedom.  Some  of  the  partakers  in  them  are  still  spared  to  us,  full  of 
years  and  honors  ;  but  the  larger  part  have  been  called  from  the  duty 
2 


1 8  SLAVERY  MADE  OUR  OWN  ORIGINAL  SIN. 

of  opposing  slavery  on  earth,  to  His  presence,  whose  service  is  perfect 
freedom.  But  the  same  question  which  aroused  their  energies,  presents 
itself  to  us.  Shall  we  be  less  faithful  than  they  ?  Will  Massachusetts 
oppose  a  less  unbroken  front  now  than  then  ?  In  the  lapse  of  these 
few  years  has  the  love  of  freedom  diminished  ?  Has  the  sensibility  to 
human  suffering  lost  any  of  the  keenness  of  its  edge  ? 

Let  us  regard  the  question  closely.  Congress  is  called  upon  to  sanc 
tion  the  Constitution  of  Texas,  which  not  only  supports  slavery,  but 
which  contains  a  clause  prohibiting  the  Legislature  of  the  State  from 
abolishing  slavery.  In  doing  this,  it  will  give  a  fresh  stamp  of  legis 
lative  approbation  to  an  unrighteous  system ;  it  will  assume  a  new  and 
.active  responsibility  for  the  system ;  it  will  again  become  a  dealer,  on 
a  gigantic  scale,  in  human  flesh.  Yes,  at  this  moment,  when  the  con 
science  of  mankind  is  at  last  aroused  to  the  enormity  of  holding  a 
fellow-man  in  bondage  ;  when,  throughout  the  civilized  world,  a  slave- 
dealer  is  a  bye- word  and  a  reproach,  we,  as  a  nation,  are  about  to 
become  proprietors  of  a  large  population  of  slaves.  Such  an  act,  at 
this  time,  is  removed  from  the  reach  of  the  palliation  often  extended  to 
: slavery.  Slavery,  we  are  speciously  told  by  those  who  seek  to  defend 
it,  is  not  our  original  sin.  It  was  entailed  upon  us,  so  we  are  in 
structed,  by  our  ancestors  ;  and  the  responsibility  is  often,  with  exulta 
tion,  thrown  upon  the  mother  country.  Now,  without  stopping  to 
inquire  into  the  truth  of  this  suggestion,  it  is  sufficient  for  the  present 
purpose,  to  know  that  by  welcoming  Texas  as  a  slave  State  we  do  make 
slavery  our  own  original  sin.  Here  is  a  new  case  of  actual  transgres 
sion  which  we  cannot  cast  upon  the  shoulders  of  any  progenitors,  nor 
upon  any  mother  country,  distant  in  time  or  place.  The  Congress  of 
the  United  States,  the  people  of  the  United  States,  at  this  day,  in  this 
-vaunted  period  of  light,  will  be  responsible  for  it ;  so  that  it  shall  be  said 
ihereafter,  so  long  as  the  dismal  history  of  slavery  is  read,  that  in  the  year  of 
Christ,  1846,  a  new  and  deliberate  act  was  passed  to  confirm  and  extend  it. 

By  the  present  movement  we  propose  no  measure  of  change.  We 
do  not  offer  to  .interfere  with  any  institutions  of  the  Southern  States, 
nor  to  modify  any  law  on  the  subject  of  slavery  anywhere  under  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States.  Our  movement  is  conservative  in 
its  character.  It  is  to  preserve  the  existing  supports  of  freedom  ;  it  is 
to  prevent  a  violation  of  the  vital  principles  of  free  institutions. 

By  the  proposed  measure,  we  not  only  become  parties  to  the  acquisi 
tion  of  a  large  population  of  slaves,  with  all  the  crime  of  slavery ;  but 
we  open  a  new  market  for  the  slaves  of  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas, 


"LET   US    TRY."  19 

and  legalize  a  new  slave  trade.  A  new  slave  trade  !  Consider  this 
well.  You  cannot  forget  the  horrors  of  what  is  called  "  the  middle 
passage,"  when  the  crowds  of  unfortunate  human  beings,  stolen,  and 
borne  by  sea  far  from  their  warm  African  homes,  are  pressed  on  ship 
board  into  spaces  of  smaller  dimensions  for  each  than  a  coffin.  And 
yet  the  deadly  consequences  of  this  middle  passage  have  been  supposed 
to  fall  short  of  those,  which  are  sometimes  undergone  by  the  wretched 
caravans,  driven  from  the  exhausted  lands  of  the  Northern  slave  States 
to  the  sugar  plantations  nearer  to  the  sun  of  the  South.  It  is  supposed, 
that  one-quarter  part  often  perish  in  these  removals.  I  see  them,  in  ima 
gination,  on  this  painful  passage,  chained  in  bands  or  troops,  and  driven 
like  cattle,  leaving  behind  what  has  become  to  them  a  home  and  a  coun 
try  (alas  !  what  a  home,  and  what  a  country  !) — husband  torn  from  wife, 
and  parent  from  child,  and  sold  anew  into  a  more  direful  captivity.  Can 
this  take  place  with  our  consent,  nay,  without  our  most  determined 
opposition  ?  If  the  slave  trade  is  to  receive  a  new  adoption  from  our 
country,  let  us  have  no  part  or  lot  in  it.  Let  us  wash  our  hands  of  this 
great  guilt.  As  we  read  its  horrors,  may  each  of  us  be  able  to  exclaim, 
with  a  conscience  void  of  offence,  "Thou  canst  not  say  I  did  it." 
God  forbid,  that  the  votes  and  voices  of  the  freemen  of  the  North 
should  help  to  bind  anew  the  fetter  of  the  slave  !  God  forbid,  that  the 
lash  of  the  slave-dealer  should  be  nerved  by  any  sanction  from  New 
England  !  God  forbid,  that  the  blood  which  spirts  from  the  lacerated, 
quivering  flesh  of  the  slave,  should  soil  the  hem  of  the  white  garments 
of  Massachusetts  ! 

But  we  are  told  that  all  exertions  will  be  vain,  and  that  the  admis 
sion  of  a  new  slave  State  is  "a  foregone  conclusion."  But  this  is  no 
reason  why  we  should  shrink  from  our  duty.  "  I  will  try,"  was  the  ex 
clamation  of  an  American  general  on  the  field  of  battle.  "  England 
expects  every  man  to  do  his  duty,"  was  the  signal  of  the  British  admi 
ral.  Ours  is  a  contest  holier  than  those  which  aroused  these  animating 
words.  Let  us  try  ;  let  every  man  do  his  duty. 

And  suppose  New  England  stands  alone  in  these  efforts  ;  suppose 
Massachusetts  stands  alone  ;  is  it  not  a  noble  solitude  ?  Is  it  not  a 
position  of  honor  ?  Is  it  not  a  position  where  she  will  find  companion 
ship  with  all  that  is  great  and  generous  in  the  past — with  all  the  disci 
ples  of  truth,  of  right,  of  liberty  ?  It  has  not  been  her  wont  on  former 
occasions  to  inquire  whether  she  should  stand  alone.  Your  honored 
ancestor,  Mr.  Chairman,  who  from  these  walls  regards  our  proceedings 
to-night,  did  not  ask  whether  Massachusetts  would  be  alone,  when  she 


20  MASSACHUSETTS   FOREMOST. 

commenced  the  opposition  which  ended  in  the  independence  of  the 
Thirteen  Colonies. 

But  we  cannot  fail  to  accomplish  great  good.  It  is  in  obedience  to 
a  prevailing  law  of  Providence,  that  no  act  of  self-sacrifice,  no  act  of 
devotion  to  duty,  no  act  of  humanity  can  fail.  It  stands  forever  as  a 
landmark  ;  as  a  point  from  which  to  make  a  new  effort.  The  cham 
pions  of  equal  rights  and  of  human  brotherhood  shall  hereafter  derive 
new  strength  from  these  exertions. 

Let  Massachusetts,  then,  be  aroused.  Let  all  her  children  be  sum 
moned  to  join  in  this  holy  cause.  There  are  questions  of  ordinary 
politics  in  which  men  may  remain  neutral  •  but  neutrality  now  is  trea 
son  to  liberty,  to  humanity,  and  to  the  fundamental  principles  of  our 
free  institutions.  Let  her  united  voice,  with  the  accumulated  echoes 
of  freedom  that  fill  this  ancient  Hall,  go  forth  with  comfort  and  cheer 
to  all  who  labor  in  the  same  cause  everywhere  throughout  the  land. 
Let  it  help  to  confirm  the  wavering,  and  to  reclaim  those  who  have 
erred  from  the  right  path.  Especially  may  it  exert  a  proper  influence 
in  Congress  upon  the  representatives  of  the  free  States.  May  it  serve 
to  make  them  as  firm  in  the  defence  of  freedom  as  their  opponents  are 
pertinacious  in  the  cause  of  slavery. 

Let  Massachusetts  continue  to  be  known  as  foremost  in  the  cause  of 
freedom ;  and  let  none  of  her  children  yield  to  the  fatal  dalliance  with 
slavery.  You  will  remember  the  Arabian  story  of  the  magnetic  mount 
ain,  under  whose  irresistible  attraction  the  iron  bolts  which  held  together 
the  strong  timbers  of  a  stately  ship  were  drawn  out,  till  the  whole  fell 
apart,  and  became  a  disjointed  wreck.  Do  we  not  find  in  this  story  an 
image  of  what  happens  to  many  Northern  men,  under  the  potent  mag 
netism  of  Southern  companionship  or  Southern  influence  ?  Those 
principles,  which  constitute  the  individuality  of  the  Northern  character, 
which  render  it  stanch,  strong,  and  seaworthy,  which  bind  it  together, 
as  with  iron,  are  drawn  out  one  by  one,  like  the  bolts  from  the  ill-fated 
vessel,  and  out  of  the  miserable  loosened  fragments  is  formed  that  hu 
man  anomaly — A  Northern  man  with  Southern  principles.  Such  a  man 
is  no  true  son  of  Massachusetts. 

There  is  a  precious  incident  in  the  life  of  one  whom  our  country  has 
delighted  to  honor,  furnishing  an  example  that  we  shall  do  well  to  imi 
tate.  When  Napoleon,  having  reached  the  pinnacle  of  military  honor, 
lusting  for  a  higher  title  than  that  of  First  Consul,  caused  a  formal  vote 
to  be  taken  on  the  question,  whether  he  should  be  declared  Emperor 
of  .France,  Lafayette,  at  that  time  in  retirement,  and  only  recently,  by 


ANTI-SLAVERY   DUTIES   OF   WHIGS.  21 

the  intervention  of  the  First  Consul,  liberated  from  the  dungeons  of 
Olmutz,  deliberately  registered  his  No.  At  a  period,  in  the  golden  de 
cline  of  his  high  career,  resplendent  with  heroic  virtues,  revisiting  our 
shores,  the  scene  of  his  youthful  devotion  to  freedom,  and  receiving  on 
all  sides  that  beautiful  homage  of  thanksgiving,  which  is  of  itself  an  all- 
sufficient  answer  to  the  sarcasm  against  the  alleged  ingratitude  of  repub 
lics,  here  in  Boston,  this  illustrious  Frenchman  listened  with  especial 
pride  to  the  felicitation  addressed  to  him,  as  "  the  man  who  knew  so 
well  how  to  say  no"  Be  this  the  example  for  Massachusetts,  and  may 
it  be  among  her  praises  hereafter,  that  on  this  occasion  she  knew  so 
well  how  to  say  NO  ! 

V. 

So  far  as  Mr.  SUMNER  had  been  a  party  man,  he  had 
been  counted  among1  the  Whigs,  for  he  had  more  hopes, 
he  said,  that  they  would  be  the  party  of  freedom.  He 
had  been  elected  to  a  Whig  State  Convention,  which 
assembled  at  Faneuil  Hall  on  the  23d  of  September, 
1846,  where  a  good  deal  of  curiosity  was  excited,  and 
some  solicitude  felt,  in  regard  to  the  course  he  would 
take.  But  at  an  early  stage  of  the  meeting,  being" 
called  upon  by  the  President,  he  delivered  a  powerful 
speech  upon  "  The  Anti-Slavery  Duties  of  the  Whig 
Party,"  which  produced  a  profound  impression  of  admi 
ration  among  all,  for  the  boldness,  the  candor,  and  the 
manliness  of  his  words.  But  by  a  large  majority  of  the 
Convention  it  was  regarded  as  a  speech  for  unhealthy 
agitation ;  the  Whigs  were  not  prepared  to  go  so  far. 
Neither  Mr.  WEBSTER  nor  Mr.  EVERETT  sympathized  with 
the  sentiments  of  Mr.  SUMNER,  nor  did  they  approve  of 
the  policy  of  any  such  course  as  he  recommended. 
Both  of  those  eminent  men  were  still  looking  forward 
to  larger  rewards  for  their  public  services.  They  were 
both  held  in  high  honor  at  home  and  abroad ;  Mr. 


22  CONSERVATISM  OF  EVERETT  AND   WEBSTER. 

EVERETT  being  regarded  as  of  much  riper  scholarship 
and  higher  intellectual  culture  than  almost  any  other 
man  in  America ;  while  men  felt  as  profound  a  venera 
tion  for  the  majesty  and  power  of  WEBSTER'S  mind,  and 
placed  a  loftier  estimate  upon  his  eloquence  than  per 
haps  upon  that  of  any  other  living  statesman.  Nor 
could  it  be  expected  that  these  illustrious  citizens,  who 
were  much  older  than  Mr.  SUMNER,  and  who  had  won 
their  enviable  reputation  in  the  calmer  days  of  the 
republic,  could  enter  very  warmly  into  such  radical 
views  as  the  rising  orator  was  now  putting  forth.  Long 
experience  generally  teaches  the  wisdom  of  conciliation  ; 
and  the  proverbial  conservatism  of  age  is,  always  roused 
into  alarm  or  hostility,  when  the  young  reformer  enters 
the  field. 

In  the  beginning  of  his  speech,  Mr.  SUMNER  did  not 
conceal  his  regret  that  the  Convention  had  not  been 
summoned  to  sit  in  the  country,  "  believing  that  the 
opinions  of  the  country,  free  as  its  bracing  air,  more 
than  those  of  Boston,  would  be  in  harmony  with  the 
tone  which  it  became  them  to  adopt  at  the  present 
crisis."  "  In  the  country,"  he  said,  "  is  the  spirit  of 
freedom ;  in  the  city,  the  spirit  of  commerce ;  and 
though  these  two  spirits  may  at  times  act  in  admirable 
conjunction,  and  with  irresistible  strength,  yet  it  some 
times  occurs  that  the  generous  and  unselfish  impulses 
of  the  one,  are  checked  and  controlled  by  the  careful 
calculations  of  economy  suggested  by  the  other.  Even 
Right  and  Liberty  are,  in  some  minds,  of  less  signifi 
cance  than  dividends  and  dollars." 

But  I  am  happy,  said  he,  that  the  Convention  has  been  convoked  in 
Faneuil  Hall.  This  place  is  vocal  with  inspiring  accents,  and  though, 
on  other  occasions,  words  have  been  uttered  here  which  the  lover  of 


WHIGS   SHOULD   BE   FOR    FREEDOM.  23 

morals,  of  freedom,  and  humanity  must  regret,  these  walls,  faithful  only 
to  Freedom,  refuse  to  echo  them.  The  Whigs  of  Massachusetts,  assem 
bled  in  Faneuil  Hall,  must  be  true  to  this  early  scene  of  the  struggles 
for  Freedom  ;  they  must  be  true  to  their  own  name,  which  has  descended 
to  them  from  those  who  partook  of  those  struggles. 

We  are  a  Convention  of  Whigs.  And  who  are  the  Whigs?  Some 
may  say  they  are  the  supporters  of  the  tariff ;  others,  that  they  are  the 
advocates  of  internal  improvements ;  of  measures  to  restrain  the  exer 
cise  of  the  veto  power  ;  or  of  a  bank.  All  these  are  now,  or  have  been, 
prominent  articles  in  the  faith  of  the  party.  But  this  enumeration  does 
not  do  justice  to  the  character  of  the  Whigs. 

The  Whigs,  as  their  name  imports,  are,  or  ought  to  be,  the  party  of 
Freedom.  They  seek,  or  should  seek,  on  all  occasions,  to  carry  out 
fully  and  practically  the  principles  of  our  institutions.  The  principles 
which  our  fathers  declared,  and  sealed  with  their  blood,  their  Whig  chil 
dren  should  seek  to  manifest  in  their  acts.  The  Whigs,  therefore,  rever 
ence  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  as  embodying  the  vital  truths  of 
freedom,  especially  that  great  truth,  "that  all  men  are  born  equal." 
They  reverence  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  seek  to  guard 
it  against  infractions  ;  believing  that  under  the  Constitution,  Freedom 
can  be  best  preserved.  They  reverence  the  Union  of  the  States  ;  be 
lieving  that  the  peace,  happiness,  and  welfare  of  all  depend  upon  this 
blessed  bond.  They  reverence  the  public  faith,  and  require  that  it 
should  be  punctiliously  kept  in  all  laws,  charters,  and  obligations.  They 
reverence  the  principles  of  morality,  of  truth,  of  justice,  of  right.  They 
seek  to  advance  their  country,  rather  than  individuals  ;  and  to  promote 
the  welfare  of  the  people,  rather  than  of  their  leaders.  A  member  of 
such  an  association,  founded  on  the  highest  moral  sentiments,  recogniz 
ing  conscience  and  benevolence  as  its  animating  ideas,  cannot  be  said 
"to  give  to  party  what  was  meant  for  mankind  ;"  for  all  the  interests 
of  the  party  must  be  coincident  and  commensurate  with  the  manifold 
interests  of  humanity. 

Such  is,  as  I  trust,  or  certainly  should  be,  the  Whig  party  of  Massa 
chusetts.  It  refuses  to  identify  itself  exclusively  with  those  measures 
of  transient  policy,  which  may,  like  the  Bank,  become  "obsolete 
ideas  ;  "  but  connects  itself  with  everlasting  principles,  which  can  never 
fade  or  decay.  In  doing  this,  it  does  not  neglect  other  things  ;  as  the 
tariff,  or  internal  improvements.  But  it  treats  these  as  subordinate. 
Far  less  does  it  show  indifference  to  the  Constitution  or  the  Union ;  for 


24  DUTY   OF  THE   WHIG  PARTY. 

it  seeks  to  render  these  the  guardians  and  representatives  of  the  lofty 
principles  to  which  we  are  attached. 

The  Whigs  have  been  called  by  you,  Mr.  President,  the  conservatives. 
In  a  just  sense,  they  should  be  conservatives;  not  of  forms  only,  but  of 
substance ;  not  of  the  letter  only,  but  of  the  living  spirit.  The  Whigs 
should  be  the  conservators  of  the  spirit  of  our  ancestors  ;  conservators 
of  the  great  animating  ideas  of  our  institutions.  They  should  profess 
that  truest  and  highest  conservatism,  which  watches,  guards,  and  pre 
serves  the  great  principles  of  Truth,  Right,  Freedom,  and  Humanity. 
Such  a  conservatism  is  not  narrow  and  exclusive ;  but  broad  and  ex 
pansive.  It  is  not  trivial  and  bigoted ;  but  manly  and  generous.  *  It  is 
the  conservatism  of  the  Whigs  of '76. 

Let  me  say,  then,  that  the  Whigs  of  Massachusetts  are — I  hope  it  is 
not  my  wish  only  that  is  father  to  the  thought — -the  party  who  seek  the 
establishment  of  Truth,  Freedom,  Right  and  Humanity,  under  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  by  the  Union  of  the  States. 
They  are  Unionists,  Constitutionalists,  Friends  of  the  Right. 

And  the  question  here  arises,  how  shall  this  party,  inspired  by  these 
principles,  now  act  ?  The  answer  is  easy.  In  accordance  with  their 
principles.  It  must  utter  them  with  distinctness,  and  act  upon  them 
with  energy. 

The  time,  I  believe,  has  gone  by  when  the  question  is  asked,  What 
has  the  North  to  do  with  Slavery?  It  might  almost  be  answered,  that, 
politically,  it  had  little  to  do  with  anything  else,  so  are  all  the  acts  of 
our  government  connected,  directly  or  indirectly,  with  this  institution. 
Slavery  is  everywhere.  It  constitutionally  enters  the  halls  of  Con 
gress,  in  the  disproportionate  representation  of  the  slave  States.  It 
shows  its  disgusting  front  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  in  the  shadow  of 
the  Capitol,  under  the  legislative  jurisdiction  of  the  nation  ;  of  the 
North  as  well  as  the  South.  It  sends  its  miserable  victims  on  the  high 
seas,  from  the  ports  of  Virginia  to  the  ports  of  Louisiana,  beneath  the 
protecting  flag  of  the  republic.  It  follows  into  the  free  States,  in  pur 
suance  of  a  provision  of  the  Constitution,  those  fugitives,  who,  under 
the  inspiration  of  freedom,  seek  our  altars  for  safety ;  nay,  more,  with 
profane  hands  it  seizes  those  who  have  never  known  the  name  of  slave, 
colored  freemen  of  the  North,  and  dooms  them  to  irremediable  bondage. 
It  insults  and  exiles  from  its  jurisdiction  the  honored  representatives  of 
Massachusetts,  who  seek,  as  messengers  of  the  Commonwealth,  to 
secure  for  her  colored  citizens  the  peaceful  safeguard  of  the  lavv-s  of  the 
Union.  It  not  only  uses  the  Constitution  for  its  purposes,  but  abuses 


WEBSTER  IN    l82O.  25 

it  also.  It  violates  the  Constitution  at  pleasure,  to  build  up  new  slave- 
holding  States.  It  seeks  perpetually  to  widen  its  area,  while  profess 
ing  to  extend  the  area  of  freedom.  It  has  brought  upon  the  country 
war  with  Mexico,  with  its  enormous  expenditures,  and  more  enormous 
guilt.  By  the  spirit  of  union  among  its  supporters,  it  controls  the 
affairs  uf  government ;  interferes  with  the  cherished  interests  of  the 
North,  enforcing  and  then  refusing  protection  to  her  manufactures ; 
makes  and  unmakes  presidents ;  usurps  to  itself  the  larger  portion  of 
all  offices  of  honor  and  profit,  both  in  the  army  and  navy,  and  also  in 
the  civil  department ;  and  stamps  upon  our  whole  country  the  charac 
ter,  before  the  world,  of  that  monstrous  anomaly  and  mockery,  a  slave- 
holding  republic,  with  the  living  truths  of  freedom  on  its  lips,  and  the 
dark  mark  of  slavery  printed  on  its  brow. 

And  shall  this  Commonwealth  continue  in  any  way  to  sustain  an 
institution  which  its  laws  declare  to  be  contrary  to  natural  right,  to 
justice,  to  humanity  and  sound  policy  ?  Shall  the  Whigs  support  what 
is  contrary  to  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  party?  Here  the  con 
sciences  of  good  men  respond  to  the  judgment  of  the  court.  If  it  be 
wrong  to  hold  a  single  slave,  it  must  be  wrong  to  hold  many.  If  it  be 
wrong  for  an  individual  to  hold  a  slave,  it  must  be  wrong  for  a  State. 
If  it  be  wrong  for  a  State,  in  its  individual  capacity,  it  must  be  wrong 
also,  in  association  with  other  States.  Massachusetts  does  not  allow 
any  of  her  citizens  within  her  borders  to  hold  slaves.  Let  her  be  con 
sistent,  and  call  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  wherever  she  is,  to  any 
extent,  responsible  for  it,  wherever  she  is  a  party  to  it,  wherever  it  may 
be  reached  by  her  influence  ;  that  is,  everywhere  beneath  the  constitu 
tion  and  laws  of  the  Federal  Government.  "  If  any  practice  exist," 
said  Mr.  Webster,  in  one  of  those  earlier  efforts  which  commended  him 
to  our  admiration,  his  address  at  Plymouth  in  1820 — "If  any  practices 
exist,  contrary  to  the  principles  of  justice  and  humanity,  within  the 
reach  of  our  laws  or  our  influence,  we  are  inexcusable  if  we  do  not 
exert  ourselves  to  restrain  and  abolish  them." 

Certainly,  to  labor  in  this  cause  is  far  higher  and  nobler  than  to 
strive  merely  for  a  repeal  of  the  Tariff,  which  was  once  mentioned  as 
the  tocsin  to  rally  the  Whigs.  REPEAL  OF  SLAVERY  UNDER  THE  CON 
STITUTION  AND  LAWS  OF  THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT  is  a  more  Christian 
and  more  potent  watchword,  because  it  embodies  a  higher  sentiment, 
and  a  more  commanding  duty. 

The  time  has  passed  when  this  can  be  opposed  on  constitutional 
grounds.  It  will  not  be  questioned  by  any  competent  authority,  that 


26  FRANKLIN'S  ABOLITION  SOCIETY. 

Congress  may,  by  express  legislation,  abolish  slavery,  ist,  in  the  District 
of  Columbia  ;  2d,  in  the  Territories,  if  there  should  be  any  ;  3d,  that  it 
may  abolish  the  slave  trade  on  the  high  seas  between  the  States  ;  4th, 
that  it  may  refuse  to  admit  any  new  State  with  a  constitution  sanction 
ing  slavery.  Nor  can  it  be  questioned  that  the  people  of  the  United 
States  may,  in  the  manner  pointed  out  by  the  Constitution,  proceed  to 
its  amendment.  It  is,  then,  by  constitutional  legislation,  and  even  by 
amendment  of  the  Constitution,  that  slavery  may  be  reached. 

And  here  the  question  arises  :  Are  there  any  compromises  in  the  Con 
stitution  of  such  a  character  as  to  prevent  action  on  this  subject  ?  I 
wish  to  say,  distinctly,  that  there  is  no  compromise  on  the  subject  of 
slavery, of  a  character  not  to  be  reached  legally  and  constitutionally, 
which  is  the  only  way  in  which  I  propose  to  reach  it.  Wherever  power 
and  jurisdiction  are  secured  to  Congress,  they  may  unquestionably  be 
exercised  in  conformity  with  the  Constitution.  And  even  in  matters 
beyond  existing  powers  and  jurisdiction,  there  is  a  constitutional  method 
of  action.  The  Constitution  contains  an  article  pointing  out  how,  at 
any  time,  amendments  may  be  made  thereto.  This  is  an  important  ele 
ment,  giving  to  the  Constitution  a  progressive  character ;  and  allowing 
it  to  be  moulded  to  suit  new  exigencies  and  new  conditions  of  feeling. 
The  wise  framers  of  this  instrument  did  not  treat  the  country  as  a  Chi 
nese  foot — never  to  grow  after  its  infancy — but  anticipated  the  changes 
incident  to  its  growth.  They  openly  declare,  "  Legislate,  as  you  please, 
in  conformity  with  the  Constitution  ;  and  even  make  amendments  in 
this  instrument,  rendered  proper  by  change  of  opinion  or  character,  fol 
lowing  always  the  manner  therein  prescribed." 

Nor  can  we  dishonor  the  memories  of  the  revered  authors  of  the 
Constitution,  by  supposing  that  they  set  their  hands  to  it,  believing  that 
slavery  was  to  be  perpetual — that  the  republic,  which,  reared  by  them 
to  its  giant  stature,  had  snatched  from  Heaven  the  sacred  fire  of  free 
dom,  was  to  be  bound,  like  another  Prometheus,  in  the  adamantine 
chains  of  fate,  while  slavery,  like  another  vulture,  preyed  upon  its  vitals. 
Let  Franklin  speak  for  them.  He  was  President  of  the  earliest  "Aboli 
tion  Society  "  in  the  United  States,  and  in  1 790,  only  two  years  after  the 
adoption  of  the  Constitution,  addressed  a  petition  to  Congress,  calling 
upon  them  "  to  step  to  the  very  verge  of  the  power  vested  in  them  for 
discouraging  every  species  of  traffic  in  our  fellow-men."  Let  Jefferson 
speak  for  them.  His  desire  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  was  often  ex 
pressed  with  philanthropic  warmth  and  emphasis.  Let  Washington 
speak  for  them.  "  It  is  among  my  first  wishes,"  he  said,  in  a  letter  to 


JOHN   QUINCY  ADAMS.  2/ 

John  Fenton  Mercer,  "  to  see  some  plan  adopted  by  which  slavery  in  this 
country  may  be  abolished  by  law."  And  in  his  will,  penned  with  his 
own  hand,  in.  the  last  year  of  his  life,  he  bore  his  testimony  again,  by 
providing  for  the  emancipation  of  all  his  slaves.  It  is  thus  that  Wash 
ington  speaks,  not  only  by  words,  but  by  actions  louder  than  words, 
"  Give  freedom  to  your  slaves."  The  Father  of  his  country  requires,  as 
a  token  of  the  filial  piety  which  all  profess,  that  his  example  should  be 
followed.  I  am  not  insensible  to  the  many  glories  of  his  character ;  but 
I  cannot  contemplate  this  act,  without  a  fresh  gush  of  admiration  and 
gratitude.  The  martial  scene  depicted  on  that  votive  canvas  may  fade 
from  the  memories  of  men  ;  but  this  act  of  justice  and  benevolence  shall 
never  perish. 

I  assume,  then,  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Whigs,  professing  the  prin 
ciples  of  the  fathers,  to  express  themselves  openly,  distinctly,  and 
solemnly  against  slavery  ;  not  only  against  its  further  extension,  but 
against  its  longer  continuance  under  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the 
Union.  But  while  it  is  their  duty  to  enter  upon  this  holy  warfare,  it 
should  be  their  aim  to  temper  it  with  moderation,  with  gentleness,  with 
tenderness,  towards  slave  owners.  These  should  be  won,  if  possible, 
rather  than  driven,  to  the  duties  of  emancipation.  But  emancipation 
should  always  be  presented  as  the  cardinal  object  of  our  National 
policy. 

Our  representatives  must  be  courageous  and  willing  on  all  occasions 
to  stand  alone,  provided  Right  is  with  them.  "  Though  every  tile  were 
a  devil,"  said  Martin  Luther,  "  yet  will  I  enter  Worms."  Such  a  spirit 
is  needed  now  by  the  advocates  of  Right.  They  must  not  be  ashamed 
of  the  name  which  belongs  to  Franklin,  Jefferson  and  Washington — 
and  which  express  the  idea  to  which  they  should  be  devoted — Abolition 
ist.  They  must  be  thorough,  uncompromising  advocates  of  the  repeal 
of  slavery,  of  its  abolition  under  the  laws  and  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  They  must  be  Repealers,  Abolitionists. 

There  are  a  few  such  men  now  in  Congress.  Massachusetts  has  a 
venerable  representative,  John  Quincy  Adams,  whose  aged  bosom  still 
glows  with  inextinguishable  fires  ;  like  the  central  heats  of  the  monarch 
mountain  of  the  Andes,  beneath  its  canopy  of  snow.  To  this  cause  he 
dedicates  the  closing  energies  of  a  long  and  illustrious  life.  Would 
that  all  would  join  him  ! 

There  is  a  Senator  of  Massachusetts,  whom  we  had  hoped  to  wel 
come  here  to-day,  whose  position  is  one  of  commanding  influence.  Let 
me  address  him  with  the  respectful  frankness  of  a  constituent  and  a 


28  APPEAL   TO   WEBSTER. 

friend  : — You  have,  Sir,  by  various  labors,  already  acquired  an  honorable 
place  in  the  history  of  our  country.  By  the  vigor,  argumentation,  and 
eloquence  with  which  you  have  upheld  the  Union,  and  that  interpreta 
tion  of  the  Constitution  which  makes  us  a  Nation,  you  have  justly 
earned  the  title  of  Defender  of  the  Constitution.  By  the  successful  and 
masterly  negotiation  of  the  treaty  of  Washington,  and  by  your  efforts 
to  compose  the  strife  of  the  Oregon,  you  have  earned  another  title — 
Defender  of  Peace.  There  are  yet  other  duties,  claiming  your  care^ 
whose  performance  will  be  the  crown  to  a  life  of  high  public  service. 
Let  me  ask  you,  when  again  at  your  post  in  the  Senate,  not  to  forget 
them.  Dedicate,  Sir,  the  golden  years  of  experience  happily  in  store 
for  you,  to  the  grand  endeavor,  in  the  name  of  Freedom,  to  remove 
from  your  country  its  greatest  evil.  In  this  cause  you  shall  find  inspi 
rations  to  eloquence,  higher  than  any  you  have  yet  confessed ; 

To  heavenly  themes  sublimer  strains  belong. 

Do  not  shrink  from  the  task.  With  your  marvellous  powers,  and  the 
auspicious  influences  of  an  awakened  public  sentiment,  under  God, 
who  always  smiles  upon  conscientious  labors  for  the  welfare  of  man,  we 
may  hope  for  beneficent  results.  Assume,  then,  these  unperformed 
duties.  The  aged  shall  bear  witness  to  you ;  the  young  shall  kindle 
with  rapture,  as  they  repeat  the  name  of  Webster  ;  and  the  large  com 
pany  of  the  ransomed  shall  teach  their  children,  and  their  children's 
children,  to  the  latest  generation,  to  call  you  blessed ;  while  all  shall 
award  to  you  yet  another  title,  which  shall  never  be  forgotten  on  earth 
or  in  heaven — Defender  of  Humanity  ;  by  the  side  of  which  that  earlier 
title  shall  fade  into  insignificance ;  as  the  Constitution,  which  is  the 
work  of  mortal  hands,  dwindles  by  the  side  of  Man,  who  is  created  in 
the  image  of  God. 

Let  us  here  then,  in  Faneuil  Hall,  beneath  the  images  of  our  fathers, 
vow  ourselves  to  perpetual  allegiance  to  the  Right — and  to  perpetual 
hostility  to  slavery.  Ours  is  a  noble  cause  ;  nobler  even  than  that  of 
our  fathers,  inasmuch  as  it  is  more  exalted  to  struggle  for  the  freedom 
of  others  than  for  our  own.  The  love  of  Right,  which  is  the  animating 
impulse  of  our  movement,  is  higher  even  than  the  love  of  Freedom. 
But  Right,  Freedom,  and  Humanity  all  concur  in  demanding  the  aboli 
tion  of  slavery. 


WAR   WITH   MEXICO.  29 


VI. 


v 


On  the  i  ith  of  May,  1846,  a  resolution  was  passed  b) 
both  Houses  of  Congress,  that  "  By  the  act  of  the 
Republic  of  Mexico,  a  state  of  war  exists  between  that 
government  and  the  United  States,"  and  the  President 
was  authorized  to  raise  fifty  thousand  volunteers,  when 
two  days  later,  ten  millions  of  dollars  were  appropriated 
towards  carrying  on  the  contest.  It  had  been  plain 
enough,  after  a  joint  resolution  for  the  admission  of  Texas 
as  a  State  into  the  Union,  a  collision  with  Mexico  had 
become  inevitable.  It  was  alleged  that  no  blame  could 
be  attached  to  the  United  States,  for  the  war  which  fol 
lowed,  for  several  reasons  ;  JirsfofaSl,  after  Santa  Anna, 
the  dictator  of  Mexico,  had  been  captured  on  the  field  of 
San  Jacinto,  he  had  recognized  the  independence  of 
Texas,  after  which  she  could  decide  her  political  alliances 
and  relations ;  second,  that  ever  since  the  establishment 
of  the  Republic  of  Mexico,  in  1824,  she  had  been  an  un 
just  and  injurious  neighbor — that  her  treasury  was  re 
plenished  by  plundering  American  vessels  in  the  Gulf, 
and  confiscating  the  property  of  American  merchants 
within  her  border ;  third,  our  Republic  had  remon 
strated  in  vain,  till  1831,  when  by  treaty,  promises  of  re 
dress  were  made.  But  this  had  put  no  end  to  aggres 
sions,  which,  by  the  year  1840,  had  amounted  to  upwards 
of  six  millions  of  dollars.  No  settlement  of  these  claims 
having  been  made,  the  annexation  of  Texas,  which  took 
place  July  4,  1845,  gave  Mexico  a  full  justification,  in  her 
opinion,  for  commencing  hostilities. 

The  war  promised  to  be  popular,  and  all  Parties  were 
ready  to  join  in  its  prosecution.     No  considerations  of 


3O  MR.    SUMNER  TO   REPRESENT   HIMSELF. 

justice  entered  into  the  question,  so  far  as  politicians 
were  concerned  ;  all  sides  being  determined  to  make  the 
most  capital  out  of  it  they  could. 

The  Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthrop  being"  the  Represen 
tative  in  Congress  from  Boston,  had  voted  for  the  war; 
and  in  doing  so,  doubtless  represented  the  sentiment  of 
the  merchants  of  that  city,  and  probably  the  popular 
feeling  of  its  citizens. 

But  the  Declaration  made  by  Congress,  and  the  vote 
of  Mr.  Winthrop,  excited  the  deepest  indignation  of  some 
of  the  best  men  in  Boston.  Mr.  Sumner  feeling  himself 
aggrieved  and  humiliated  in  behalf  of  his  native  town, 
but  more  especially  in  behalf  of  the  cause  of  peace  and 
humanity,  of  which  he  had  now  become  the  most  power 
ful  advocate  on  this  continent,  he  addressed  to  Mr.  Win 
throp  a  letter  which  is  worthy  of  the  most  careful  atten 
tion  of  all  those  who  desire  to  have  a  complete  compre 
hension  of  Mr.  Sumner's  political  principles,  and  the 
depth  and  earnestness  of  his  convictions  as  a  man,  and  a 
citizen.  We  cannot  in  this  instance,  nor  in  any  other, 
find  space  for  any  unabridged  speech,  or  production  of  his 
pen.  The  most  we  can  do  will  be  to  preserve  the  chain 
of  his  argument,  allowing  him,  in  all  cases,  to  speak  for 
himself.  We  shall  hope  in  this  manner,  to  furnish  the 
reader  everything  essential  for  tracing  the  progress  of  Mr. 
Sumner's  views  on  the  important  interests  that,  during 
his  mature  life,  came  up  for  action,  and  in  whose  disposal 
he  acted  a  prominent  part. 

VII. 

It  cost  Mr.  Sumner  no  small  sacrifice  of  personal  feel 
ing  to  address  such  a  letter  to  one  who  had  from  boy- 


SUMNER'S  REBUKE  OF  WINTHROP.  31 

hood  been  among  his  intimate  and  most  highly  esteemed 
personal  friends.  But  while  he  could  never  allow  his 
conscience  to  give  way  to  personal  considerations, 
we  search  in  vain  for  any  trace  of  personal  animosity, 
or  other  sentiment  than  one  of  regret.  He  tells  Mr. 
Winthrop  that  he  had  never  failed  to  vote  for  him  as  a 
Whig,  whenever  he  had  an  opportunity,  and  had  on 
other  occasions  considered  it  proper  to  review  his  public 
course,  and  to  express,  as  he  sometimes  had,  the  sorrow 
it  had  caused  him.  "  Conscious,"  says  he,  "  of  no  feel 
ing  towards  yourself  personally,  except  good-will,  min 
gled  with  the  recollection  of  pleasant  social  intercourse, 
I  enter  with  pain  upon  the  consideration  of  your  vote, 
and  of  the  apologies  for  it  which  you  and  others  have  set 
up.  I  am  not  a  politician ;  and  you  will  pardon  me, 
therefore,  if  I  decline  to  bring  your  conduct  to  any  of 
the  tests  of  party,  or  of  numbers  ;  to  any  sliding  scale  of 
expediency ;  to  any  standard  except  the  golden  rule  of 
right  and  wrong." 

In  speaking  of  the  Act  of  Congress  appropriating 
money  and  men  for  the  Mexican  war,  he  says  that  he 
shall  consider  the  Act  in  six  different  aspects : 


It  is  six  times  wrong.  Six  different  and  unanswerable  reasons  should 
have  urged  its  rejection.  Six  different  appeals  should  have  touched 
every  Christian  heart.  Let  me  consider  them  separately. 

First.  It  is  practically  a  DECLARATION  OF  WAR  against  a  sister 
Republic.  In  Congress  is  vested,  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  the  power  of  declaring  war.  Before  this  Act  was  passed,  the 
Mexican  War  had  no  legislative  sanction.  Without  this  Act,  it  would 
have  no  legislative  sanction.  It  is  by  virtue  of  this  Act,  that  the  pre 
sent  war  is  waged.  It  is  by  virtue  of  this  Act,  that  an  American  fleet, 
at  immense  cost  of  money,  and  without  any  gain  of  character,  is  now 
disturbing  the  commerce  of  Mexico,  and  of  the  civilized  world,  by  the 
blockade  of  Vera  Cruz.  It  is  by  virtue  of  this  Act,  that  a  distant  ex- 


32  OPPOSITION  TO   THE  MEXICAN   WAR. 

pedition  has  seized,  with  pilfering  rapacity,  the  defenceless  province  of 
California.  It  is  by  virtue  of  this  Act,  that  General  Kearney  has 
marched  upon  and  captured  Santa  Fe.  It  is  by  virtue  of  this  Act,  that 
General  Taylor  has  perpetrated  the  massacre  at  Monterey.  It  is  by 
virtue  of  this  Act,  that  desolation  has  been  carried  into  a  thousand 
homes, — that  mothers,  sisters,  daughters  and  wives  have  been  plunged 
in  the  comfortless  despair  of  bloody  bereavement,  while  the  uncoffined 
bodies  of  sons,  brothers  and  husbands  are  consigned  to  premature 
graves.  Lastly,  it  is  by  virtue  of  this  Act,  that  the  army  of  the  United 
States  has  been  converted  into  a  legalized  band  of  brigands,  marauders, 
and  banditti,  in  violation  of  the  sanctions  of  civilization,  justice  and 
humanity.  The  American  soldiers,  who  have  died  ignobly  in  the 
streets  of  a  foreign  city,  in  the  attack  upon  a  Bishop's  palace,  in  con 
test  with  Christian  fellow-men,  who  were  defending  fire-sides  and  altars, 
may  claim  the  epitaph  of  Simonides  :  "  Go,  tell  at  Sparta,  that  we  died 
here  in  obedience  to  her  laws"  It  was  in  obedience  to  this  Act  of 
Congress  that  they  laid  down  their  lives  in  a  barbarous  war. 

Second.  This  Act  gives  the  sanction  of  Congress  to  an  unjust  war. 
War  is  barbarous  and  brutal ;  but  this  is  unjust.  It  grows  out  of  ag 
gression  on  our  part,  and  is  continued  by  aggression.  The  statement 
of  facts  already  made  is  sufficient  to  substantiate  this  point. 

Third.  It  declares  that  war  exists  "  by  the  act  of  the  Republic  of 
Mexico."  This  statement  of  brazen  falsehood  is  inserted  in  the  front 
of  the  Act.  But  it  is  now  admitted  by  most,  if  not  all  of  the  Whigs, 
who  unhappily  voted  for  it,  that  it  is  not  founded  in  fact.  It  is  a  Na 
tional  lie. 

Fourth.  It  provides  for  the  prosecution  of  the  war  "  to  a  speedy  and 
successful  termination"  that  is,  for  the  successful  prosecution  of  an  un 
just  war.  Surely  no  rule  can  be  more  firmly  founded  in  morals,  than 
that  we  should  seek  the  establishment  of  right.  Never  strive  for  the 
triumph  of  wrong. 

Fifth.  The  war  has  its  origin  in  a  series  of  measures  to  extend  and 
perpetuate  Slavery.  A  wise  and  humane  legislator  should  have  dis 
cerned  its  source,  and  derived  therefrom  fresh  impulses  to  oppose  it. 

Sixth.  The  war  is  dishonorable  and  cowardly,  as  being  the  attack 
of  a  rich,  powerful,  numerous  and  united  Republic,  upon  a  weak  and 
defenceless  neighbor,  distracted  by  civil  feuds.  Every  consideration  of 
true  honor,  manliness  and  Christian  duty,  prompted  gentleness  and  for 
bearance  towards  our  unfortunate  Sister. 

Such,  Sir,  is  the  Act  of  Congress,  which  received  your  sanction.     It 


WINTHROP'S   SUBTERFUGES.  33 

will  hardly  yield  in  importance  to  any  measure  of  our  Government 
since  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution.  It  is  certainly  the 
most  wicked  in  our  history,  as  it  is  one  of  the  most  wicked  in  all  his 
tory.  The  recording  Muse  will  drop  a  tear  over  its  turpitude  and  in 
justice,  while  she  gibbets  it  for  the  disgust  and  reprobation  of  mankind. 

Such,  Sir,  is  the  Act  of  Congress  to  which,  by  your  affirmative  vote, 
the  people  of  Boston  have  been  made  parties.  Through  you,  they  have 
been  made  to  declare  an  unjust  and  cowardly  war,  with  falsehood,  in 
the  cause  of  slavery.  Through  you,  they  have  been  made  partakers 
in  the  blockade  of  Vera  Cruz,  in  the  seizure  of  California,  in  the  capture 
of  Santa  Fe,  in  the  bloodshed  of  Monterey.  It  were  idle  to  suppose 
that  the  poor  soldier,  or  officer  only,  is  stained  by  this  guilt.  It  reaches 
far  back,  and  incarnadines  the  Halls  of  Congress ;  nay  more,  through 
you,  it  reddens  the  hands  of  your  constituents' in  Boston.  Pardon  this 
language.  Strong  as  it  may  seem,  it  is  weak  to  express  the  aggrava 
tion  of  your  act,  in  joining  in  the  declaration  of  an  unjust  war.  Oh  ! 
Mr.  Winthrop,  rather  than  lend  your  vote  to  this  wickedness,  you 
should  have  suffered  the  army  of  the  United  States  to  pass  submissively, 
through  the  Caudine  Forks  of  Mexican  power — to  perish,  it  might  be, 
irretrievably,  like  the  legions  of  Varus.  Their  bleached  bones,  in  the 
distant  valleys  where  they  were  waging  an  unjust  war,  would  not  tell 
to  posterity  such  a  tale  of  ignominy  as  this  lying  Act  of  Congress. 

Another  apology,  suggested  by  yourself,  and  vouchsafed  by  your  de 
fenders,  is  founded  on  the  alleged  duty  of  voting  succors  to  General 
Taylor's  troops,  and  the  impossibility  of  doing  this,  without  voting  also 
for  the  Bill,  after  it  had  been  converted  into  a  Declaration  of  Falsehood 
and  of  War.  It  is  said  that  patriotism  required  this  vote.  Patriotism  ! 
is  not  thy  name  profaned  by  this  apology  !  Let  one  of  your  honored 
predecessors,  Sir,  a  representative  of  Boston  on  the  floor  of  Congress, 
Mr.  Quincy,  give  the  reply  to  this  apology.  On  an  occasion  of  trial 
not  unlike  that  through  which  you  have  passed,  and  in  the  same  place, . 
he  gave  utterance  to  these  noble  words  : — 

But  it  is  said  this  resolution  must  be  taken  "  as  a  test  of  patriotism." 
To  this  I  have  but  one  answer.  If  patriotism  ask  me  to  assert  a  false 
hood,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  telling  patriotism,  "I  am  not  prepared  to-' 
make  that  sacrifice."  The  duty  we  owe  to  our  country  is  indeed  among 
the  most  solemn  and  impressive  of  all  obligations.  But,  high  as  it  may 
be,  it  is  nevertheless  subordinate  to  that,  which  we  owe  to  that  Being, 
with  whose  name  and  character  truth  is  identified.  In  this  respect,  I 
deem  myself  acting,  upon  this  resolution,  under  a  higher  responsibility 
than  either  to  this  House,  or  this  people. 
3 


34  WINTHROP'S   SUBSERVIENCY  TO   SLAVE   POWER. 

Another  apology,  which  is  often  supplied  by  your  defenders,  is,  that 
the  majority  of  the  Whig  party  joined  with  you,  or,  as  it  has  been  ex 
pressed,  that  "  Mr.  Winthrop  voted  with  all  the  rest  of  the  weight  of 
moral  character  in  Congress,  from  the  Free  States,  belonging  to  the 
Whig  party,  not  included  in  the  Massachusetts  delegation  ;  "  and  sugges 
tions  have  been  made  in  disparagement  of  the  fourteen,  who  remained 
unshaken  in  their  loyalty  to  Truth  and  Peace.  In  the  question  of 
Right  or  Wrong,  it  can  be  of  little  importance,  that  a  few  fallible  men, 
constituting  what  is  called  a  majority,  were  all  of  one  mind.  In  every 
age  supple  or  insane  majorities  have  been  found  to  sanction  injustice. 
It  was  a  majority  which  passed  the  Stamp  Act,  and  Tea  Tax  ;  which 
smiled  upon  the  persecution  of  Galileo  ;  which  stood  about  the  stake 
of  Serverus ;  which  administered  the  hemlock  to  Socrates ;  which  called 
for  the  crucifixion  of  our  Lord.  But  these  majorities  cannot  make  us 
withhold  condemnation  from  the  partakers  in  these  acts. 

Let  me  add  that,  in  other  respects,  your  course  has  been  in  disagree 
able  harmony  with  your  vote  on  the  Mexican  War  Bill.  I  cannot 
forget — for  I  sat  by  your  side  at  the  time — that  on  the  4th  of  July,  1845, 
in  Faneuil  Hall,  you  extended  the  hand  of  fellowship  to  Texas  ;  al 
though  she  had  not  yet  been  received  among  the  States  of  the  Union. 
-1  cannot  forget  the  toast,  which  you  uttered  on  the  same  occasion,  by 
which  you  have  connected  your  name  with  an  epigram  of  dishonest 
patriotism.  I  cannot  forget  your  apathy  at  a  later  day,  when  many 
of  your  constituents  entered  upon  holy  and  constitutional  efforts  to 
oppose  the  admission  of  Texas,  with  a  slaveholding  constitution — con 
duct  strangely  inconsistent  with  your  recent  avowal  of  "  uncompromis 
ing  hostility  to  all  measures  for  introducing  new  slave  States  and  new 
.-slave  Territories  into  the  Union."  Nor  can  I  forget  the  ardor  with 
«which  you  devoted  yourself  to  the  less  important  question  of  the 
'Tariff — indicating  the  relative  position  of  the  two  questions  in  your 
imind.  As  I  review  your  course,  the  vote  on  the  Mexican  War  Bill 
seems  to  be  the  dark  com  summation. 

And  now  let  me  ask  you,  when  you  resume  your  seat  in  Congress,  to 
i>ear  your  testimony  at  once,  without  hesitation  or  delay,  against  the 
further  prosecution  of  this  war.  Forget  for  a  while  the  Sub-Treasury, 
the  Veto,  even  the  Tariff ;  and  remember  this  wicked  war.  With  the 
eloquence  which  you  command  so  easily,  and  which  is  your  pride,  call 
for  the  instant  cessation  of  hostilities.  Let  your  cry  be  that  of  Falkland 
in  the  civil  wars,  "  Peace  !  Peace  !  "  Think  not  of  what  you  have  called, 
in  your  speeches,  "  An  honorable  peace."  There  can  be  no  peace  with 


FINAL  APPEAL  TO   WINTHROP.  35 

Mexico  which  will  not  be  more  honorable  than  this  war.  Every  fresh 
victory  is  a  fresh  dishonor.  "Unquestionably,"  you  have  strangely 
said,  "We  must  not  forget  that  Mexico  must  be  willing  to  negotiate  ! '' 
No  !  No  !  Mr.  Winthrop.  We  are  not  to  wait  for  Mexico.  Her  con 
sent  is  not  needed  ;  nor  is  it  to  be  asked,  by  a  Christian  statesman, 
while  our  armies  are  defiling  her  soil  by  their  aggressive  footsteps.  She 
is  passive.  We  alone  are  active.  Stop  the  war.  Withdraw  our  forces. 
In  the  words  of  Colonel  Washington,  RETREAT!  RETREAT!  By  so 
doing,  we  shall  cease  from  further  wrong  ;  and  peace  will  ensue. 

Let  me  ask  you,  Sir,  to  remember  in  your  public  course  the  rules  of 
Right,  which  you  obey  in  your  private  capacity.  The  principles  of 
morals  are  the  same  for  nations  and  for  individuals.  Pardon  me,  if  I 
suggest  that  you  do  not  appear  to  have  acted  invariably  in  accordance 
with  this  truth.  You  would  not,  in  your  private  capacity,  set  your  name 
to  a  falsehood ;  but  you  have  done  so,  as  a  Representative  in  Congress. 
You  would  not,  in  your  private  capacity,  countenance  wrong,  even  in 
your  friend  or  your  child ;  but,  as  a  Representative,  you  have  pledged 
yourself  "  not  to  withhold  your  vote  from  any  reasonable  supplies  which 
may  be  called  for"  in  the  prosecution  of  this  wicked  war.  Do  by  your 
country  as  by  your  child.  You  would  not  furnish  to  him  means  of 
offence  against  his  neighbors ;  do  not  furnish  them  to  your  country. 
Do  not  vote  for  any  supplies  to  sustain  this  unrighteous  purpose.  Again, 
you  would  not  hold  slaves.  I  doubt  not  you  would  join  with  Mr.  Pal 
frey,  in  emancipating  any  who  should  become  yours  by  inheritance  or 
otherwise.  But  I  have  never  heard  of  your  joining  in  efforts,  or  sym 
pathy,  with  those  who  seek  to  carry  into  our  institutions  that  practical 
conscience,  which  declares  it  to  be  equally  wrong  in  individuals  and  in 
States  to  sanction  Slavery. 

Let  me  ask  you  still  further— and  you  will  know  if  there  is  any  reason 
to  justify  this  request— to  bear  your  testimony  against  the  Mexican 
War,  and  all  supplies  for  its  prosecution,  regardless  of  the  minority  in 
which  you  may  be  placed.  Think,  Sir,  of  the  cause,  and  not  of  your 
associates.  Forget  for  a  while  the  tactics  of  party,  and  all  its  subtle 
combinations.  Emancipate  yourself  from  its  close-woven  web,  spun  as 
from  a  spider's  belly,  and  walk  in  the  luminous  pathway  of  Right.  Re 
member  that  you  represent  the  conscience  of  Boston,  the  churches  of 
the  Puritans,  the  city  of  Channing. 

Meanwhile  a  fresh  election  is  at  hand,  and  you  are  again  a  candidate 
for  the  suffrages  of  your  fellow-citizens.  I  shall  not  anticipate  their 
verdict.  Your  blameless  private  life,  and  your  respectable  attainments, 


36  ADVOCACY   OF  DR.    HOWE'S   ELECTION. 

cannot  fail  to  receive  the  approbation  of  all ;   but  more  than  one  of 
your  neighbors  will  be  obliged  to  say, 

Cassio,  I  love  thee, 


But  never  more  be  officer  of  mine.1 

VIII. 

Ten  days  later — Nov.  4,  1846 — on  the  eve  of  the  Con 
gressional  Election,  at  a  meeting  in  the  Tremont  Temple 
to  advance  the  cause  of  the  Election  of  Dr.  Howe  in  op 
position  to  Mr.  Winthrop,  the  regular  Whig  candidate, 
Mr.  Sumner  made  one  of  his  most  effective  speeches,  in 
which  he  said : 

When  in  the  month  of  July,  1830,  the  people  of  Paris  rose  against 
the  arbitrary  ordinances  of  Charles  X.,  and,  after  three  days  of  bloody 
combat,  succeeded  in  that  Revolution,  by  virtue  of  which  the  Dynasty 
of  Orleans  now  occupies  the  throne  of  France,  Lafayette,  votary  of 
Liberty  in  two  hemispheres,  placing  himself  at  the  head  of  the  move 
ment,  on  the  second  day,  walked  from  his  residence  to  the  City  Hall, 
through  streets  impassable  to  carriages,  filled  with  barricades,  and  strewn 
with  the  wrecks  of  war.  Moving  along  with  a  thin,  attendance,  he  was 
unexpectedly  joined  by  a  gallant  Bostonian,  who,  though  young  in  life, 
was  already  eminent  by  seven  years  of  d:sinterested  service  in  the  strug 
gle  for  Grecian  independence  against  the  Turks,  who  had  himself  lis 
tened  to  the  whizzing  of  bullets,  and  had  narrowly  escaped  the  descend 
ing  scimitar.  Lafayette,  considerate  as  he  was  brave,  turned  to  his 
faithful  friend,  and  said,  "  Do  not  join  me  ;  this  is  a  danger  for  French 
men  only ;  reserve  yourself  for  your  own  country,  where  you  will  be 
needed."  Our  fellow-citizen  heeded  him  not,  but  continued  by  his  side, 
sharing  his  perils.  That  Bostonian  was  Dr.  Howe.  And  now  the  words 
of  Lafayette  are  verified.  He  is  needed  by  his  country.  At  the  present 
crisis,  in  our  Revolution  of  "  Three  Days,"  he  Comes  forward  to  the 
post  of  danger. 

I  cannot  disguise  the  satisfaction  I  shall  feel  in  voting  for  him — 
beyond  even  the  gratification  of  personal  friendship — because  he  is  not 
a  politician.  His  whole  life  is  thickly  studded  with  various  labors  in 
the  highest  of  all  causes,  the  good  of  man.  He  is  the  friend  of  the 


INSTANTLY   CEASE  WRONG-DOING.  37 

poor— the  friend  of  the  blind— the  friend  of  the  prisoner— the  friend  of 
the  slave.  Wherever  there  is  suffering,  there  his  friendship  is  manifest. 
Generosity,  disinterestedness,  self-sacrifice  and  courage,  have  been  his 
inspiring  sentiments,  directed  by  rare  sagacity  and  intelligence  ;  and 
now,  wherever  Humanity  is  regarded,  wherever  there  are  bosoms  that 
beat  responsive  to  philanthropic  exertions,  his  name  is  cherished  and 
beloved.  Such  a  man  reflects  lustre  upon  the  place  of  his  birth ;  far 
more  than  any  one  who  has  excelled  only  in  the  strife  of  politics,  or  the 
servitude  of  party. 

He  has  qualities  which  commend  him,  especially  at  this  time.  He 
is  firm,  ever  true,  honest,  inflexible,  a  lover  of  the  Right.  With  a 
courage  that  charms  opposition,  he  would  not  fear  to  stand  alone  against 
a  fervid  majority.  Knowing  War  by  a  fearful  familiarity,  he  is  an  earnest 
defender  of  Peace.  With  a  singular  experience  of  life  in  other  coun 
tries,  he  now  bring  the  stores  which  he  has  garnered  up,  and  his  noble 
spirit,  to  the  service  of  his  fellow-citizens.  May  they  know  how  to 
value  them  I  *  * 

The  true  Whig  ground,  the  only  ground,  consistent  with  our  profess 
ed  loyalty  to  the  higher  sentiments  of  dut}^,  is  constant  uncompromising 
opposition  to  the  war,  in  all  the  forms  in  which  opposition  may  be  made. 
Expecting  right  from  Mexico,  we  must  begin  by  doing  right.  We  are 
the  aggressors.  We  must  cease  to  be  the  aggressors. 

This  is  the  proper  course  of  duty,  having  its  foundations  in  the 
immutable  laws  of  God.  Our  country  must  do  as  an  individual  in 
similar  circumstances  ;  for  though  politicians  may  disown  it — and  this 
principle  cannot  be  too  often  repeated — there  is  but  one  rule  of  duty 
for  nations  and  for  individuals.  If  any  one  of  you,  fellow-citizens,  find 
ing  yourself  in  dispute  with  a  neighbor,  had  unfortunately  resorted  to 
blows  and  felled  him  to  the  earth,  but,  with  returning  reason,  discovered 
that  you  were  in  the  wrong,  what  would  you  do  ?  Of  course,  cease 
instantly  from  wrong-doing.  You  would  help  your  neighbor  to  his  feet. 
With  Christian  benevolence  you  would  seek  to  soothe  his  wrongs.  You 
would  not,  in  the  language  of  President  Polk,  seek  "  to  conquer  a  peace," 
nor,  in  the  language  of  Mr.  Winthrop,  "  to  achieve  an  honorable  peace  " 
by  force.  Precisely  so  must  our  country  act  now.  We  must  help  our 
down-trodden  Mexican  neighbor  to  her  feet.  We  must  withdraw  our 
forces  to  the  Neuces,  and  then,  when  ample  justice  has  been  done  on 
our  side,  seek  justice  and  peace  from  her.  Be  assured  these  would 
easily  follow.  Perhaps  the  same  response  might  come  from  the  Mexi 
cans,  that  the  Falerii  sent  to  the  Roman  Senate,  through  Camillus  : 


38  FRIENDS   OF   AMERICA   IN   PARLIAMENT. 

"  The  Romans  having  preferred  justice  to  conquest,  have  taught  us  to  be 
satisfied  with  submission  instead  of  liberty." 

That  I  may  not  seem  to  found  these  conclusions  upon  general  princi 
ples  of  morals  only,  let  me  invoke  the  example  of  the  Whigs  of  England, 
of  Chatham,  Camden,  Burke,  Fox  and  Sheridan,  in  their  opposition  to 
the  war  of  our  Revolution  ;  denouncing  it,  at  the  outset,  as  unjust,  and 
never,  during  its  whole  progress,  failing  to  declare  their  condemnation 
of  it ;  voting  against  supplies  for  its  prosecution,  and  against  thanks  for 
the  military  services  by  which  it  was  waged.  Holding  their  example,  as 
of  the  highest  practical  authority  on  the  present  question  of  political 
duty,  and  as  particularly  fit  to  be  regarded  by  persons  professing  to  be 
Whigs  in  America,  I  shall  make  no  apology  for  introducing  at  some 
length  the  authentic  evidence  which  places  it  beyond  doubt.  This  is 
to  be  found  in  the  volumes  of  the  Parliamentary  Debates.  I  am  not 
aware  that  it  has  ever  before  been  applied  to  the  present  discussion. 

In  the  Debate  in  the  Lords  on  the  address  of  Thanks  in  Oct.  1775, 
after  the  battle  of  Lexington  and  Bunker  Hill — the  Duke  of  Grafton 
said: 

I  pledge  myself  to  your  lordships  and  my  country,  that,  if  necessity 
should  require  it,  and  my  health  not  otherwise  permit  it,  I  mean  to 
come  down  to  this  House  in  a  litter,  in  order  to  express  my  full  and 
hearty  disapprobation  of  the  measures  now  pursuing  ;  and,  as  I  under 
stand  from  the  noble  lords  in  office,  meant  to  be  pursued.  1  do  pro 
test,  that  if  my  brother  or  dearest  friend  were  to  be  affected  by  the  vote 
I  mean  to  give  this  evening,  I  cannot,  possibly,  resist  the  faithful  dis 
charge  of  my  conscience  and  my  duty.  Were  I  to  lose  my  fortune, 
and  every  other  thing  I  esteem,  were  I  to  be  reduced  to  beggary  itself, 
the  strong  conviction  and  compulsion  at  once  operating  on  my  mind 
and  conscience,  would  not  permit  me  to  take  any  other  part  on  the 
present  occasion,  than  that  i  now  mean  to  adopt. 

At  the  close  of  this  Debate,  a  protest  was  signed  by  several  peers, 
containing  the  following  clause  : 

Because  we  cannot,  as  Englishmen,  as  Christians,  or  as  men  of  com 
mon  humanity,  consent  to  the  prosecution  of  a  cruel  civil  war,  so  little 
supported  by  justice,  and  so  very  fatal  in  its  necessary  consequences, 
as  that  which  is  now  waging  against  our  brethren  and  fellow-subjects  in 
America. 

In  the  House  of  Commons,  on  the  same  Address,  Mr.  Wilkes  said  : 

I  call  the  war  with  our  brethren  in  America,  an  unjust  felonious  war. 
*  *  *  I  assert  that  it  is  a  murderous  war,  because  it  is  an  effort  to 
deprive  men  of  their  lives  for  standing  up  in  the  just  cause  of  the  de 
fence  of  their  property,  and  their  clear  rights.  It  becomes  no  less  a 


LIBERTY   DEFENDED   IN   PARLIAMENT.  39 

murderous  war,  with  respect  to  many  of  our  fellow-subjects  of  this 
Island  ;  for  every  man,  either  of  the  army  or  navy,  who  has  been  sent 
by  Government  to  America,  and  fallen  a  victim  in  this  unnatural  and 
unjust  contest,  has,  in  my  opinion,  been  murdered  by  the  administra 
tion,  and  his  blood  lies  at  their  door.  Such  a  war,  I  fear,  Sir,  will  draw 
down  the  vengeance  of  Heaven  upon  this  devoted  kingdom. 

Mr.  Fox  said  : 

He  could  not  consent  to  the  bloody  consequences  of  so  silly  a  contest 
about  so  silly  an  object,  conducted  in  the  silliest  manner  that  history,  or 
observation,  had  ever  furnished  an  instance  of;  and  from  which  we 
were  likely  to  derive  nothing  but  poverty,  misery,  disgrace,  defeat,  and 
ruin. 

Mr.  Serjeant  Adair  said  : 

I  am  against  the  present  war,  because  I  think  it  unjust  in  its  com 
mencement,  injurious  to  both  countries  in  its  prosecution,  and  ruinous 
in  its  event.  *  *  *  I  think  from  the  bottom  of  my  soul,  that  the 
Colonies  are  engaged  in  a  noble  and  glorious  struggle.  *  *  *  Sir, 
I  could  not  be  easy  in  my  own  mind,  without  entering  the  strongest 
and  most  public  protestations  against  measures  which  appear  to  me  to 
be  fraught  with  the  destruction  of  this  mighty  Empire.  /  wash  my 
hands  of  the  blood  of  my  fellow-subjects  ;  and  shall  at  least  have  this 
satisfaction,  amidst  the  impending  calamities  of  the  public,  not  only  to 
think  that  I  have  contributed  to,  but  that  I  have  done  all  in  my  power 
to  oppose  and  avert  the  ruin  of  my  country. 

In  another  debate  in  the  Lords,  Nov.  i5th,  1775,  that  strenuous 
friend  of  freedom,  and  upholder  of  Whig  principles,  Lord  Camden. 
said : 

Peace  is  still  within  our  power ;  nay,  we  can  command  it.  A  sus 
pension  of  arms  on  our  part,  if  adopted  in  time,  will  secure  it  for  us  ; 
and  I  may  add  on  our  own  terms,  from  which  it  is  plain,  as  we  have 
been  the  original  aggressors  in  this  business,  if  we  obstinately  persist,  we 
are  fairly  answerable  for  all  the  consequences.  I  again  repeat,  what  I 
often  urged  before,  that  I  was  against  this  unnatural  war  from  the 
beginning.  I  was  equally  against  every  measure  from  the  instant  the 
first  tax  was  proposed,  to  this  minute.  When,  therefore,  it  is  insisted, 
that  we  are  only  to  defend  and  enforce  our  own  right,  I  positively  deny 
it.  I  contend  that  America  has  been  driven  by  cruel  necessity  to  de 
fend  her  rights  from  the  united  attacks  of  violence,  oppression,  and  in 
justice.  I  contend  that  America  has  been  indisputably  aggrieved. 
*  *  *  I  must  still  think,  and  shall  uniformly  continue  to  assert,  that 
Great  Britain  has  been  the  aggressor ;  that  most,  if  not  all,  the  acts 
were  founded  on  oppression,  and  that  if  I  was  in  America,  I  should 
resist  to  the  last  such  manifest  exertion  of  tyranny,  violence,  and  in 
justice. 

In  another  debate  in  the  Commons,  Dec.  8th,  1785,  Mr.  Fox  said : 


40  FOX— BARRE— BURKE. 

I  have  always  said  that  the  war  carrying  on  against  America  is 
unjust. 

In  the  Commons,  March  nth,  1776,  Col.  Barre,  Mr.  Burke,  Mr. 
Fox,  all  vied  in  eulogies  upon  General  Montgomery,  the  account  of 
whose  death  before  Quebec  had  arrived  some  days  before. 

In  the  Commons,  April  24th,  1776,  a  debate  arose  on  the  Budget, 
containing  resolutions  to  raise  taxes  to  carry  on  the  war  against 
America.  Mr.  Fox  then  said  : 

To  the  resolutions  he  should  give  a  flat  negative,  and  that  not  be 
cause  of  any  particular  objection  to  the  taxes  proposed  (although  it 
might  be  a  sufficient  ground  for  urging  many)  but  because  he  could  not 
conscientiously  agree  to  grant  any  money  for  so  destructive,  so  ignoble 
a  purpose  as  the  carrying  on  a  war  commenced  unjustly,  and  supported 
with  no  other  view  than  to  the  extirpation  of  freedom,  and  the  violation 
of  every  social  comfort.  THIS  HE  CONCEIVED  TO  BE  THE  STRICT  LINE 

OF  CONDUCT  TO  BE  OBSERVED  BY  A  MEMBER  OF  PARLIAMENT.       He  then 

painted  the  war  with  America  as  unjust,  and  the  pursuance  of  the  war 
as  blood-thirsty  and  oppressive. 

Col.  Barre  followed,  and  adopted  the  phrase  of  Mr.  Fox,  giving  his 
flat  negative  to  the  Resolutions,  as  they  were  calculated  to  tax  the  sub 
ject  for  an  unjust  purpose. 

In  the  Lords,  Oct.  3ist,  1776,  the  Duke  of  Grafton  said: 

He  pledged  himself  to  the  House,  and  to  the  Public,  that  while  he 
had  a  leg  to  stand  on,  he  would  come  down  day  after  day  to  express 
the  most  marked  abhorrence  of  the  measures  hitherto  pursued,  and 
meant  to  be  adhered  to  in  respect  to  America. 

In  the  Commons,  on  the  same  night,  Mr.  Fox  said  : 

The  noble  Lord  who  moved  the  amendment,  said  that  we  were  in 
the  dilemma  of  conquering  or  abandoning  America  ;  if  we  are  reduced 
to  that,  1  am  for  abandoning  America. 

In  the  Commons,  Nov.  6th,  1776,  Mr.  Burke  said : 

You  simply  tell  the  Colonists  to  lay  down  their  arms,  and  then  you 
will  do  just  as  you  please.  Could  the  most  cruel  conqueror  say  less  ? 
Had  you  conquered  the  devil  himself  in  hell,  could  you  be  less  liberal  ? 
No! 

In  the  Commons,  Feb.  i8th,  1777,  Col.  Barre  said  : 

America  must  be  reclaimed,  not  conquered  or  subdued.  Conciliation 
or  concession  are  the  only  sure  means  of  either  gaining  or  retaining 
America. 

In  the  Commons,  May  i4th,  1777,  another  debate  occurred  on  the 
Budget,  in  the  course  of  which  Mr.  Burke  said  : 


LORD   CHATHAM— DUKE   OF  RICHMOND.  41 

He  was  and  ever  would  be  ready  to  support  a  just  war,  whether 
against  subjects  or  alien  enemies;  but  where  justice,  or  a  color  of 
justice,  was  wanting,  he  should  ever  be  the  first  to  oppose  it. 

In  the  Lords,  May  28th,  1777,  Lord  Chatham  brought  forward  a 
motion  to  put  a  stop  to  American  hostilities,  and  said  : 

We  have  tried  for  unconditional  submission  ;  try  what  can  be  gained 
by  unconditional  redress.  We  are  the  aggressors.  We  have  invaded 
them.  We  have  invaded  them  as  much  as  the  Spanish  Armada  invaded 
England.  *  *  *  *  In  the  sportsman's  phrase,  when  you  have 
found  yourself  at  fault,  you  must  try  back.  I  shall  no  doubt  hear  it 
objected,  Why  should  we  submit  or  concede  ?  Has  America  done 
anything,  on  her  part,  to  induce  us  to  agree  to  so  large  a  ground  of 
concession  ?  I  will  tell  you,  my  lords,  why  I  think  you  should.  You 
Jiave  been  the  aggressors  from  the  beginning.  If  then  we  are  the 
aggressors,  it  is  your  lordships'  business  to  make  the  first  overture.  I 
say  again,  this  country  has  been  the  aggressor.  You  have  made 
descents  upon  their  coasts  ;  you  have  burnt  their  towns,  plundered 
their  country,  made  war  upon  the  inhabitants,  confiscated  their  pro 
perty,  proscribed  and  imprisoned  their  persons.  /  do  therefore  affirm, 
that,  instead  of  exacting  unconditional  submission  from  the  Colonies,  we 
should  grant  them  unconditional  redress.  We  have  injured  them;  we 
have  endeavored  to  enslave  and  oppress  them.  Upon  this  clear 
ground,  instead  of  chastisement  they  are  entitled  to  redress.  If  I  were 
an  American,  as  I  am  an  Englishman,  while  a  foreign  troop  was  landed 
in  my  country,  I  never  would  lay  down  my  arms — never — never — 
never. 

And  again  Lord  Chatham  said  : 

I  would  sell  my  shirt  from  off  my  back  to  assist  in  proper  measures, 
properly  and  wisely  conducted ;  but  I  would  not  part  with  a  single 
shilling  to  the  present  ministers.  Their  plans  are  founded  in  destruc 
tion  and  disgrace.  It  is,  my  lord,  a  ruinous  and  destructive  war ;  it  is 
full  of  danger ;  it  teems  with  disgrace,  and  must  end  in  ruin. 

In  the  Lords,  Nov.  i8th,  1777,  the  Duke  of  Richmond  said  : 

Can  we  too  soon  put  a  stop  to  such  a  scene  of  carnage  ?  I  know, 
that  what  I  am  going  to  say  is  not  fashionable  language,  but  a  time 
will  come  when  every  one  of  us  must  account  to  God  for  his  actions ; 
and  how  can  we  justify  causing  so  many  innocent  lives  to  be  lost  ? 

In  the  Commons,  Dec.  5th,  1778,  Mr.  Hartley,  the  constant  friend 
of  America,  brought  forward  a  motion  : 

That  it  is  unbecoming  the  wisdom  and  prudence  of  Parliament,  to 
proceed  any  further  in  the  support  of  this  fruitless,  expensive,  and 
destructive  war ;  more  especially  without  any  specific  terms  of  accom 
modation  declared. 


42  WILKES — FOX — SHERIDAN. 

In  the  Lords,  Feb.  i6th,  1778,  the  Marquis  of  Rockingham  said  : 

He  was  determined  to  serve  his  country,  by  making  peace  at  any 
rate. 

In  the  Lords,  March  23d,  1778,  the  Duke  of  Richmond  brought 
forward  a  motion  for  the  withdrawal  of  the  forces  from  America. 

In  the  Commons,  Nov.  27th,  1780,  on  a  motion  to  thank  General 
Clinton  and  others,  for  their  military  services  in  America,  Mr.  Wilkes 
said  : 

I  think  it  my  duty  to  oppose  this  motion,  because  in  my  idea  every 
part  of  it  conveys  an  approbation  of  the  American  war ;  a  war 
unfounded  in  principle,  and  fatal  in  its  consequences  to  this  country. 
*  *  Sir,  I  will  not  thank  for  victories  which  only  tend  to  protract  a 
destructive  war.  *  *  As  I  reprobate  the  want  of  principle  in  the 
origin  of  the  American  war,  I  the  more  lament  all  the  spirited  exertions 
of  valor  and  the  wisdom  of  conduct,  which,  in  a  good  cause,  I  warmly 
applaud.  Thinking  as  I  do,  I  see  more  matter  of  grief  than  of  triumph, 
of  bewailing  than  thanksgiving,  in  this  civil  contest,  and  the  deluge  of 
blood  which  has  overflowed  America.  *  *  I  deeply  lament  that  the 
lustre  of  such  splendid  victories  is  obscured  and  darkened  by  the  want 
of  a  good  cause,  without  which  no  war,  in  the  eye  of  truth  and  reason, 
before  God  or  man,  can  be  justified. 

Mr.   Fox  said  : 

He  allowed  the  merits  of  the  officers  now  in  question,  but  he  made  a 
distinction  between  thanks  and  praise.  He  might  admire  their  valor, 
but  he  could  not  separate  the  intention  from  the  action  ;  they  were 
united  in  his  mind  ;  there  they  formed  one  whole,  and  he  would  not 
attempt  to  divide  them. 

Mr.  Sheridan  said  : 

There  were  in  that  House  different  descriptions  of  men  who  could 
not  assent  to  a  vote  of  thanks  that  seemed  to  imply  a  recognition  or 
approbation  of  the  American  war. 

Such  is  the  doctrine  of  morals,  sanctioned  by  high  English  examples. 
Such  should  be  the  doctrine  of  an  American  statesman.  If  we  apply 
this  to  the  existing  exigency  ;  nay,  more,  if  we  undertake  to  try  the 
candidates  on  the  present  occasion  by  this  standard,  we  shall  find,  that, 
as  Dr.  Howe  is  unquestionably  right,  so  Mr.  Winthrop  is  too  certainly 
wrong.  In  thus  exalting  our  own  candidate,  I  would  not  unduly  dis 
parage  another.  It  is  for  the  sake  of  the  cause  in  which  we  are 
engaged, — by  the  side  of  which  all  individuals  dwindle  into  insignifi 
cance, — that  we  now  oppose  Mr.  Winthrop.  We  desire  to  bear  oui 
testimony  earnestly,  heartily,  sincerely,  against  Slavery,  and  the  longer 


THE    FREE-SOIL   PARTY   COMING.  43 

continuance  of  the  M  ixican  war.  We  demand  the  retreat  of  General 
Taylor,  and  the  instant  withdrawal  of  the  American  forces.  And  even 
if  we  seem  to  fail,  in  this  election,  we  shall  not  fail  in  reality.  The 
influence  of  this  effort  will  be  felt.  It  will  help  to  awaken  and  organize 
that  powerful  public  opinion  by  which  this  war  will  at  last  be  arrested. 

Hang  out,  then,  fellow-citizens,  the  white  banner  of  Peace.  Unfurl 
all  its  ample  folds,  streaming  with  Christian  trophies.  Let  the  citizens 
of  Boston  rally  about  it ;  and  let  it  be  borne  by  an  enlightened,  conscien 
tious  people,  aroused  to  the  condemnation  of  this  murderous  war,  until 
Mexico,  wet  with  blood  unjustly  shed,  shall  repose  undisturbed  at  last 
beneath  its  celestial  folds. 


IX. 

The  war  with  Mexico  had  ended  in  the  conquest  of 
that  country,  and  the  annexation  of  just  as  large  a  por 
tion  of  its  territory  as  we  saw  fit  to  demand.  The  ex 
tension  of  our  republic  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  with  the  vast 
domain  thus  acquired,  would  now  call  for  new  legisla 
tion,  and  slavery  was  stretching  forth  her  hands  to 
grasp  those  vast  regions  which  were  now  open  for  the 
first  time  to  the  enterprise  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race. 
The  Pro-slavery  party  at  the  North  seemed  more  ready 
than  ever  to  yield  to  any  demands  that  slavery  might 
make,  and  both  parties  vied  with  each  other  in  bowing 
to  the  now  all-powerful  Moloch.  But  signs  were  every 
where  appearing  of  the  birth  of  a  new  party  which 
would  resist  the  further  extension  of  slavery  over  free 
soil.  There  were  strong  men  throughout  the  country, 
who  were  preparing  for  a  new  movement.  Mr.  Van 
Buren  was  not  strong  enough  to  command  the  nomi- 

o  o 

nation  of  his  party  at  Baltimore,  and  the  Democratic 
statesmen  of  New  York,  embracing  such  men  as  Silas 
Wright  and  Gov.  Dix,  were  preparing  to  stand  by  their 
former  political  leader,  in  making  some  movement  to 


44  CHARLES   FRANCIS   ADAMS'   NOBLE   COURSE. 

resist  the  imperious  demands  of  the  slave  power.  Sal 
mon  P.  Chase,  who  entertained  strong  anti-slavery  sen 
timents,  as  well  as  Joshua  Giddings,  commanded  great 
influence  in  Ohio,  while  Mr.  Charles  Francis  Adams, 
and  his  friend,  Charles  Sumner,  were  putting  forth  their 
mightiest  efforts  to  restore  to  the  old  Commonwealth  of 
Massachusetts  Bay  the  spirit  of  liberty,  whose  beacon- 
fires  had  long  ago  begun  to  grow  dim.  There  was  a 
general  disposition,  through  many  portions  of  the  North, 
to  throw  off  despotism  of  party  ;  and  with  a  view  to  unite 
men*  of  all  parties  against  the  future  encroachments  of 
slavery,  a  mass  Convention  was  called,  to  meet  at  Wor 
cester  on  the  28th  of  June,  1848.  In  that  convention, 
Mr.  Charles  Francis  Adams,  Mr.  Giddings,  and  Mr. 
Sumner  were  the  chief  speakers,  and  the  leading  spirits. 
Before  Mr.  Sumner  spoke,  Charles  Francis  Adams, 
after  showing  how  basely  the  Whig  Party  had  prosti 
tuted  itself  to  the  behests  of  slavery,  closed  with  the 
following  stirring  words : 

The  only  thing  to  be  done  by  all  under  such  circumstances,  is  what 
as  one,  individually,  I  have  made  up  my  mind  to  do,  that  is — to  have 
nothing  more  to  do  with  it.  Hereafter,  then,  I  stand  free,  clear,  a 
freeman,  without  any  pledges,  without  any  promise  to  any  party.  I 
stand,  then,  ready  to  go  forward  as  one  in  this  great  movement,  which 
shall  establish,  I  hope,  forever,  the  sacred  principle  of  freedom  through 
out  this  hemisphere.  Forgetting  the  things  that  are  behind,  I  pro 
pose  that  we  press  forward  to  the  high  calling  of  our  new  occupa 
tion  ;  and,  fellow-citizens,  whatever  may  be  the  fate  of  you  or  me,  all  I 
can  now  add  is,  to  repeat  the  words  of  one  with  whom  I  take  pride  in 
remembering  that  I  have  been  connected — "  Sink  or  swim,  live  or  die, 
survive  or  perish; "  to  go  with  the  liberties  of  my  country,  is  my  fixed 
determination. 

These  words,  which  had  something  of  the  ring  of  the 
old  Revolution  in  them,  transported  the  assembly  with 


SUMNER'S  GREAT  SPEECH  AT  WORCESTER.  45 

the  wildest  enthusiasm.  Perhaps  no  man,  except  Charles 
Sumner,  could  have  followed  such  a  speaker  as  Mr. 
Adams  proved  himself  to  be  that  day,  and  maintained 
the  fervor  of  the  meeting.  In  alluding  to  what  Mr. 
Adams  had  said,  he  modestly  renounced  any  hope  of 
exciting  a  deeper  feeling,  or  even  a  desire  to  fan  the 
fires  of  patriotism  and  liberty  which  had  been  once 
more  re-kindled  in  the  old  Bay  State.  But  one  thing, 
at  least,  he  declared  that  he  could  do,  "  I  can  join  them 
— Giddings  and  Adams — in  a  renunciation  of  those  party 
relations  which  seem  now  inconsistent  with  the  support 
of  freedom.  Like  them,  I  have  been  a  Whig,  because  I 
thought  this  Party  represented  the  moral  sentiments  of 
the  country ;  that  it  was  the  Party  of  Humanity :  but  it 
has  ceased  to  sustain  this  character.  It  does  not  repre 
sent  the  moral  sentiments  of  the  country ;  it  is  not  the 
Party  of  Humanity:  and  a  party  which  renounces  its 
sentiments,  must  itself  expect  to  be  renounced.  For 
myself,  therefore,  in  the  coming  conflict,  I  wish  it  to  be 
understood  that  I  belong  to  the  Party  of  Freedom — to 
that  party  which  plants  itself  on  the  Declaration  of  In 
dependence  and  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States/' 
He  then  proceeded  with  his  speech,  in  terms  of  fervid 
eloquence. 

I  am  reminded,  he  said,  by  the  transactions  in  which  we  are  now 
engaged,  of  an  incident  in  French  history.  It  was  late  in  the  night, 
at  Versailles,  that  a  courtier  of  Louis  XVI.,  penetrating  the  bed-cham 
ber  of  his  master,  and  arousing  him  from  his  slumbers,  communicated 
to  him  the  intelligence — big  with  gigantic  destinies — that  the  people  of 
Paris,  smarting  under  wrong  and  falsehood,  had  risen  in  their  might,  and, 
after  a  severe  contest  with  hireling  troops,  destroyed  the  Bastile.  The 
unhappy  monarch,  turning  upon  his  couch,  said,  "  It  is  an  insurrection" 
"  No,  Sire,"  was  the  reply  of  the  honest  courtier,  "  it  is  a  revolution:' 
And  such  is  our  Movement  to-day.  It  is  a  REVOLUTION — not  begin- 


46  AUDACITY  OF  THE  SLAVE  POWER. 

ning  with  the  destruction  of  a  Bastile,  but  destined  to  end  only  with  the 
overthrow  of  a  tyranny,  differing  little  in  hardship  and  audacity  from 
that  which  sustained  the  Bastile  of  France — I  mean  the  Slave  Power  of 
the  United  States. 

By  the  Slave  Power,  I  understand  that  combination  of  persons,  or, 
perhaps,  of  politicians,  whose  animating  principle  is  the  perpetuation 
and  extension  of  Slavery,  and  the  advancement  of  Slaveholders.  That 
such  a  combination  exists,  will  be  apparent  from  a  review  of  our  his 
tory.  It  shows  itself,  in  the  mildest,  and  perhaps  the  least  offensive 
form,  in  the  undue  proportion  of  offices  under  the  Federal  Constitution, 
which  has  been  held  by  Slaveholders.  It  is  still  worse  apparent  in  a 
succession  of  acts  by  which  the  Federal  Government  has  been  prosti 
tuted  to  the  cause  of  Slavery.  Among  the  most  important  of  these  is 
the  Missouri  Compromise,  the  Annexation  of  Texas,  and  the  War  with 
Mexico.  Mindful  of  the  sanctions,  which  Slavery  derived  under  the 
Constitution — from  the  Missouri  Compromise — of  the  fraud  and  iniquity 
of  the  Annexation  of  Texas — and  of  the  great  crime  of  waging  an  unne 
cessary  and  unjust  war  with  Mexico — of  the  mothers,  wives,  and  sisters 
compelled  to  mourn  sons,  husbands,  and  brothers,  untimely  slain, — as 
these  things,  dark,  dismal,  atrocious,  rise  to  the  mind,  may  we  not 
brand  their  author,  the  Slave  Power,  as  a  tyranny  hardly  less  hateful 
than  that  which  sustained  the  Bastile. 

This  combination  is  unknown  to  the  Constitution  ;  nay,  it  exists  in 
defiance  of  the  spirit  of  that  instrument,  and  of  the  recorded  opinions 
of  its  founders.  The  Constitution  was  the  crowning  labor  of  the  auth 
ors  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  It  was  established  to  per 
petuate,  in  the  form  of  an  organic  law,  those  rights  which  the  Declara 
tion  had  promulgated,  and  which  die  sword  of  Washington  had  secured 
— "  We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident — that  all  men  are  created 
equal,  that  they  are  endowed  with  certain  inalienable  rights, — that 
among  these  are  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness"  Such  are 
the  emphatic  words  which  our  country  took  upon -its  lips,  when  it  first 
claimed  its  place  among  the  nations  of  the  earth.  These  were  its  bap 
tismal  vows.  And  the  preamble  of  the  Constitution  renews  them,  when 
it  declares  its  objects  to  be,  among  other  things,  "to  establish  justice, 
to  promote  the  general  welfare,  and  secure  the  blessifigs  of  liberty  to 
ourselves  and  our  posterity."  Mark  ;  it  is  not  to  establish  injustice — 
not  to  promote  the  welfare  of  a  class,  or  of  a  few  slaveholders,  but  the 
general  welfare  ;  not  to  foster  the  curse  of  slavery,  but  to  secure  the 
blessings  of  liberty.  And  the  declared  opinions  of  the  fathers  were  all 


THE   SPIRIT   OF  THE  FATHERS.  47 

in  harmony  with  these  instruments.  "  I  can  only  say,"  said  Washing 
ton,  "  that  there  is  not  a  man  living,  who  wishes  more  sincerely  than  I 
do  to  see  a  plan  adopted  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  ;  but  there  is  only 
one  proper  and  effectual  mode  by  which  it  can  be  accomplished,  and 
that  is,  by  the  legislative  authority ;  and  this,  as  far  as  my  suffrage  will 
go,  shall  not  be  wanting."  Patrick  Henry,  while  confessing  that  he  was 
a  master  of  slaves,  said,  "  I  will  not,  I  cannot  justify  it.  However  cul 
pable  my  conduct,  I  will  so  far  pay  my  devoir  to  virtue,  as  to  own  the 
excellence  and  rectitude  of  her  precepts,  and  lament  my  want  of  con 
formity  to  them.  I  believe  a  time  will  come,  when  an  opportunity  will 
be  offered  to  abolish  this  lamentable  evil."  And  Franklin,  as  President 
of  the  earliest  Abolition  Society  of  the  country,  signed  a  petition  to  the 
first  Congress,  in  which  he  declared  that  he  "  considered  himself  bound 
to  use  all  justifiable  endeavors  to  loosen  the  bands  of  slavery,  and  pro 
mote  a  general  enjoyment  of  the  blessings  of  freedom."  Thus  the 
soldier,  the  orator,  and  the  philosopher  of  the  Revolution,  all  unite  in 
homage  to  Freedom.  Washington,  so  wise  in  counsel  and  in  battle ; 
Patrick  Henry,  with  his  tongue  of  flame;  Franklin,  with  his  heaven- 
descended  sagacity  and  humanity,  all  bear  testimony  to  the  true  spirit 
of  the  times  in  which  they  lived,  and  of  the  institutions  which  they 
helped  to  establish. 

It  is  apparent  that  our  constitution  was  formed  by  the  lovers  of  Hu 
man  Freedom ;  that  it  was  animated  by  their  divine  spirit ;  that  the  in 
stitution  of  Domestic  Slavery  was  regarded  by  them  with  aversion,  so 
that,  though  covertly  alluded  to,  it  was  not  named  in  the  instrument ; 
and  that  they  all  looked  forward  to  the  day  when  this  evil  and  shame 
would  be  obliterated  from  the  land.  Surely,  then,  it  is  right  to  say  that 
the  combination,  whose  object  is  to  perpetuate  and  extend  Slavery,  is 
unknown  to  the  Constitution,  and  exists  in  defiance  of  the  spirit  of 
that  instrument,  and  of  the  recorded  opinions  of  its  founders. 

Time  would  fail  me  to  dwell  on  the  growing  influence  which  it  has 
exerted  from  the  foundation  of  the  government.  In  the  earlier  periods 
of  our  history  it  was  moderate  and  reserved.  The  spirit  of  the 
founders  still  prevailed.  But  with  the  advance  of  time,  and  as  these 
early  champions  passed  from  the  scene,  it  became  more  audacious, 
aggressive  and  tyrannical,  till  at  last  it  has  obtained  the  control  of  the 
government,  and  caused  it  to  be  administered,  not  in  the  spirit  of  Free 
dom,  but  in  the  spirit  of  Slavery.  Yes  !  the  government  of  the  United 
States  is  now  (let  it  be  said  with  shame)  not  what  it  was  at  the  begin 
ning,  a  government  merely  permitting,  while  it  regretted  Slavery,  but  a 


48  FREEDOM   POWER   VS.    SLAVE   POWER. 

government  openly  favoring  and  vindicating  it,  visiting  also  with  its 
displeasure  all  who  oppose  it. 

It  is  during  late  years  that  the  Slave  Power  has  introduced  a  new 
test  for  office — a  test  which  would  have  excluded  Washington,  Jeffer 
son  and  Franklin.  It  applies  an  arrogant  and  unrelenting  ostracism 
to  all  who  express  themselves  against  Slavery.  And  now,  in  the  mad 
ness  of  its  tyranny,  it  proposes  to  extend  this  curse  to  new  soils  not 
darkened  by  its  presence.  It  seeks  to  make  the  flag  of  our  country 
the  carrier  of  Slavery  into  distant  landb ;  to  scale  the  mountain  fast 
nesses  of  Oregon,  and  descend  with  its  prey  upon  the  shores  of  the 
Pacific ;  to  cross  the  Rio  Grande,  and  there,  in  broad  territories,  re 
cently  obtained  by  robber  hands  from  Mexico,  to  plant  a  shameful 
institution,  which  that  republic  has  expressly  abolished.  *  * 

And  now  the  question  occurs,  What  is  the  true  line  of  duty  with  re 
gard  to  these  two  candidates  ?  Mr.  Van  Buren  (and  I  honor  him  for 
his  trumpet  call  to  the  North)  has  sounded  the  true  note,  when  he  said 
he  could  not  vote  for  either  of  them.  Though  nominated  by  different 
parties,  they  represent,  as  I  have  said,  substantially  the  same  interest 
— the  Slave  Power.  The  election  of  either  would  be  a  triumph  of  the 
Slave  Power,  and  entail  upon  the  country,  in  all  probability,  the  sin  of 
extending  slavery.  How,  then,  shall  they  be  encountered  ?  It  seems 
to  me,  in  a  very  plain  way.  The  lovers  of  Freedom,  of  all  parties,  and 
irrespective  of  all  party  association,  must  unite,  and,  by  a  new  combina 
tion,  congenial  with  the  Constitution,  oppose  both  candidates.  This 
will  be  the  FREEDOM  POWER,  whose  single  object  shall  be  to  resist 
the  SLAVE  POWER.  We  shall  put  them  face  to  face,  and  let  them 
grapple.  Who  can  doubt  the  result  ? 

But  it  is  said  that  we  shall  throw  away  our  votes,  and  that  our  oppo 
sition  will  fail.  Fail,  Sir  !  No  honest,  earnest  effort  in  a  good  cause 
ever  fails.  It  may  not  be  crowned  with  the  applause  of  men  ;  it  may 
not  seem  to  touch  the  goal  of  immediate  worldly  success,  which  is  the 
end  and  aim  of  so  much  of  life.  But  still  it  is  not  lost.  It  helps  to 
strengthen  the  weak  with  new  virtue ;  to  arm  the  irresolute  with  proper 
energy  ;  to  animate  all  with  devotion  to  duty,  which  in  the  end  conquers 
all.  Fail !  Did  the  martyrs  fail,  when  with  their  precious  blood  they  sow 
ed  the  seed  of  the  Church  ?  Did  the  discomfited  champions  of  Freedom 
fail,  who  have  left  those  names  in  history  which  can  never  die  ?  Did 
the  three  hundred  Spartans  fail,  when,  in  the  narrow  pass,  they  did  not 
fear  to  brave  the  innumerable  Persian  hosts,  whose  very  arrows  dark 
ened  the  sun  ?  No  !  Overborne  by  numbers,  crushed  to  earth,  they 


CONTINUANCE   OF   THE   AMERICAN   REVOLUTION.  49 

have  left  an  example  which  is  greater  far  .than  any  victory.  Arid  this  is 
the  least  we  can  do.  Our  example  shall  be  the  source  of  triumph  here 
after.  It  will  not  be  the  first  time  in  history  that  the  hosts  of  Slavery 
have  outnumbered  the  champions  of  freedom.  But  where  is  it  written 
that  Slavery  finally  prevailed  ? 

But  the  assurances  received  here  to-day  show  that  we  need  not  post 
pone  our  anticipations  of  success.  1 1  seems  already  at  hand.  The  heart 
of  Ohio  beats  responsive  to  the  heart  of  Massachusetts,  and  all  the  Free 
States  are  animated  with  the  vigorous  breath  of  Freedom.  Let  us  not, 
then,  waste  time  in  vain  speculations  between  the  two  candidates.  Both 
are  bad.  Both  represent  a  principle  which  we  cannot  sanction. 

Whatever  may  be  said  by  politicians  to  the  contrary,  the  question  of 
Freedom  is  the  only  one  now  before  the  American  people. 

All  other  questions  being  withdrawn,  what  remains  for  those  who,  in 
casting  their  votes,  regard princip hs  rather  than  men?  It  is  clear,  that 
the  only  question  of  any  present  practical  interest  is  that  arising  from 
the  usurpations  of  the  Slave  Power,  and  the  efforts  to  extend  slavery. 
This  is  the  vital  question  of  our  country  at  this  time.  It  is  the  question 
of  questions.  It  was  lately  said  in  the  Convention  of  the  New  York 
Democracy  at  Utica,  (and  I  am  glad  to  allude  to  the  doings  of  that 
most  respectable  body  of  men,)  that  the  movement  in  which  we  are  now 
engaged  was  the  most  important  of  any  since  the  American  Revolution. 
Something  more  might  have  been  said.  //  is  a  continuance  of  the  Amer 
ican  Revolution.  It  is  an  effort  to  carry  into  effect  the  principles  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  and  to  revive  in  the  administration  of 
our  government  the  spirit  of  Washington,  Franklin,  and  Jefferson  ;  to 
bring  back  the  Constitution  to  the  principles  and  practice  of  its  early 
founders  ;  to  the  end  that  it  shall  promote  Freedom  and  not  Slavery, 
and  shall  be  administered  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  Freedom,  and 
not  with  the  spirit  of  Slavery. 

There  are  emphatic  words  in  the  last  will  and  testament  of  Wash 
ington,  which  may  be  adopted  as  a  motto  for  the  present  contest. 
After  providing  for  the  emancipation  of  his  slaves,  to  take  place  on  the 
death  of  his  wife,  he  says,  "  And  I  do  expressly  forbid  the  sale  or  trans 
portation  out  of  the  said  Commonwealth,  of  any  slave  I  may  die  pos 
sessed  of  under  any  pretence  whatever!'  So  at  least  should  the  people 
of  the  United  States  expressly  forbid  the  sale  or  transportation  of  any 
slave  beyond  their  ancient  borders,  under  any  pretence  whatever. 

Returning  to  our  forefathers  for  their  principles,  let  us  borrow,  also, 
something  of  their  courage  and  union.  Let  us  summon  to  our  sides 
4 


50  LIBERTY— EQUALITY — FRATERNITY. 

the  majestic  forms  of  those  civil  heroes,  whose  firmness  in  council  was 
equalled  only  by  the  firmness  of  Washington  in  war.  Let  us  listen  again 
to  the  eloquence  of  the  elder  Adams,  animating  his  associates  in  Con 
gress  to  independence  ;  let  us  hang  anew  upon  the  sententious  wisdom 
of  Franklin ;  let  us  be  enkindled,  as  were  the  men  of  other  days,  by  the 
fervid  devotion  to  Freedom,  which  flamed  from  the  heart  of  Jefferson. 

Deriving  instruction  from  our  enemies,  let  us  also  be  taught  by  the 
Slave  Power.  The  two  hundred  thousand  slaveholders  are  always 
united  in  purpose.  Hence  their  strength.  Like  arrows  in  a  quiver, 
they  cannot  be  broken.  The  friends  of  Freedom  have  thus  far  been 
divided.  Union^  then,  must  be  our  watchword, — union  among  men  of 
all  parties.  By  such  a  union  we  shall  consolidate  an  opposition  which 
must  prevail. 

Let  Massachusetts— nurse  of  the  men  and  principles  which  made  our 
earliest  revolution — vow  herself  anew  to  her  early  faith.  Let  her 
elevate  once  more  the  torch,  which  she  first  held  aloft.  Let  us,  if  need 
be,  pluck  some  fresh  coals  from  the  living  altars  of  France.  Let  us, 
too,  proclaim  "  Liberty,  Equality,  Fraternity," — Liberty  to  the  captive 
— Equality  between  the  master  and  his  slave — Fraternity  with  all  men, 
the  whole  comprehended  in  that  sublime  revelation  of  Christianity,  the 
'Brotherhood  of  Mankind. 

In  the  contemplation  of  these  great  interests,  the  intrigues  of  party, 
the  machinations  of  politicians,  the  combinations  of  office-seekers,  seem 
all  to  pass  from  our  sight.  Politics  and  morals,  no  longer  divorced 
from  each  other,  become  one  and  inseparable  in  the  holy  wedlock  of 
Christian  sentiment.  Such  a  union  elevates  politics,  while  it  gives  a 
new  sphere  to  morals.  Political  discussions  have  a  grandeur  which 
they  have  never  before  assumed.  Released  from  those  topics,  which 
concern  only  the  selfish  strife  for  gain,  and  which  are  perhaps  indepen 
dent  of  morals,  they  come  home  to  the  hearts  and  consciences  of  men. 
A  novel  forre  passes  into  the  contests  of  party,  breathing  into  them  the 
breath  of  a  new  life,  of  Hope,  of  Progress,  of  Justice,  of  Humanity. 

It  is  easy  to  see  from  this  demonstration  to-day,  and  from  the  glad 
tidings  that  swell  upon  us  from  all  the  Free  States,  that  this  great  cause 
•of  Freedom,  to  which  we  now  dedicate  ourselves,  will  sweep  the  heart 
strings  of  the  people  !  It  will  smite  all  the  chords  with  a  might  to  draw 
forth  emotions,  such  as  no  political  struggle  has  ever  caused  before.  It 
will  move  the  young,  the  middle-aged,  and  the  old.  It  will  find  a  place 
in  the  family  circle,  and  mingle  with  the  flame  of  the  household  hearth. 
Jt  will  touch  the  souls  of  mothers,  wives,  sisters,  and  daughters,  until 


PRESIDENTIAL   NOMINATIONS   AT  BUFFALO.  5 1 

the  sympathies  of  all  shall  swell  in  one  firm  and  irresistible  voice  against 
the  deep  damnation,  in  this  age  of  Christian  light,  of  lending  new  sanc 
tions  to  the  slavery  of  our  brother-man. 

Come  forth,  then,  men  of  all  parties  ;  let  us  range  together.  Come 
forth,  all  who  have  thus  far  stood  aloof  from  parties.  Here  is  an 
occasion  for  action.  Men  of  peace  !  come  forward.  All  who  feel  in 
any  way  the  wrong  of  slavery,  take  your  stand  !  Join  us,  ye  lovers  of 
Truth,  of  Justice,  of  Humanity  !  And  let  me  call  especially  upon  the 
young.  You  are  the  natural  guardians  of  Freedom.  In  your  firm  re 
solves  and  generous  souls,  she  will  find  her  surest  protection.  The 
young  man,  who  is  not  willing  to  serve  in  her  cause — to  suffer,  if  need 
be,  for  her — gives  little  promise  of  those  qualities  which  secure  an 
honorable  age. 

X." 

The  agitation  which  had  now  for  some  time  been  go 
ing  on  through  the  country,  began  to  assume  formidable 
proportions — the  seed  sown  by  a  few  strong  hands  had 
begun  to  bear  fruit.  The  foremost  of  the  leading  spirits 
throughout  the  North  assembled  in  convention  at  Buffalo, 
announcing  a  platform  of  opposition  to  the  further  exten 
sion  of  slavery,  and  by  acclamation  nominated  Martin 
Van  Buren  for  President,  and  Charles  Francis  Adams  as 
Vice-President.  On  the  22d  of  August,  the  same  year — 
1848 — a  public  meeting  was  called  at  Faneuil  Hall  to  ra 
tify  the  nominations  of  the  Buffalo  Convention.  Mr.  Sum- 
ner,  as  the  presiding  officer  of  the  meeting,  made  the 
following  brief,  but  bold  and  comprehensive  speech  : 

And  why,  in  this  nineteenth  century,  are  we  assembled  here  in  Fan 
euil  Hall,  to  vow  ourselves  to  this  cause  ?  It  is  because  it  is  now  in 
danger.  The  principles  of  our  fathers, — of  Washington,  Franklin,  and 
Jefferson, — nay.  the  self-evident  truths  of  the  Declaration  of  Indepen 
dence, — have  been  assailed.  Our  Constitution, — which  was  the  work 
of  the  lovers  of  Freedom, — which  was  watched  by  its  most  devoted 
champions, — which,  like  the  ark  of  the  covenant,  was  borne  on  the 


52  SUMMER'S  RATIFICATION  SPEECH. 

shoulders  of  the  early  patriarchs  of  our  Israel,— has  been  prostituted  to 
the  uses  of  Slavery.  A  body  of  men,  whose  principle  of  union  was 
unknown  to  the  authors  of  the  Constitution,  have  obtained  the  control 
of  the  government,  and  caused  it  to  be  administered,  not  in  the  spirit 
of  Freedom,  but  in  the  spirit  of  Slavery.  This  combination  is  known 
as  the  Slave  Power  of  the  United  States. 

This  combination  has  obtained  the  sway  of  both  the  great  political 
factions  of  the  country.  Whatever  may  be  said  of  the  opinions  of  in 
dividuals  belonging  to  these  different  factions,  it  would  be  difficult  to 
say  whether  the  whigs  or  democrats,  in  their  recent  conduct  as  national 
parties,  had  most  succumbed  to  this  malign  influence.  The  late  Con 
ventions  at  Baltimore  and  Philadelphia  were  controlled  by  it.  At  Balti 
more,  the  delegation  of  the  most  important  State  of  the  Union — known 
to  be  opposed  to  the  Wihuot  Proviso--wTas  refused  admission  to  the 
Convention.  At  Philadelphia,  tire  Wilmot  Proviso  itself  was  stifled, 
according  to  the  report  of  an  Ohio  delegate,  amidst  the  cries  of  "  Kick 
it  out  ! "  General  Cass  was  nominated  at  Baltimore,  pledged  against 
the  Wilmot  Proviso.  General  Taylor,  at  Philadelphia, — without  any 
pledge  on  this  all-important  question, — was  forced  upon  the  Conven 
tion  by  the  Slave  Power  ;  nor  were  any  principles  of  any  kind  put  forth 
by  this  body  of  professing  whigs.  These  two  candidates,  apparently 
representing  opposite  parties,  both  concur  in  being  the  representatives 
of  Slavery.  They  are  the  leaders  of  the  two  contending  factions  of 
the  Slave  Power.  I  say  factions  ;  for,  what  are  factions  but  combinations 
of  men  whose  sole  cement  is  a  selfish  desire  for  place  and  power,  in 
disregard  of  principles  ?  And  such  were  the  Conventions  at  Baltimore 
and  Philadelphia. 

In  marked  contrast  with  these  was  the  recent  Convention  at  Buffalo, 
where  were*  represented  the  good  men  of  all  the  parties, — whigs,  demo 
crats,  and  liberty  men, — forgetting  alike  all  former  differences,  and 
uniting  in  a  common  opposition  to  the  Slave  Power.  There,  by  their 
delegates,  was  the  formidable  and  unsubdued  Democracy  of  New 
York ;  there  also  was  the  devoted,  inflexible  Liberty  party  of  the 
country  ;  there  also  were  the  true-hearted  whigs  and  democrats  of  all 
the  Free  States,  who  in  this  great  cause  of  Freedom  have  been,  among 
the  faithless,  faithful  found.  There  also  were  welcome  delegates  from 
the  Slave  States, — from  Maryland  and  Virginia, — anxious  to  join  in  this 
new  and  truly  holy  alliance.  In  uncounted  multitude, — mighty,  in 
numbers,  mightier  still  in  the  harmony  and  unity  of  their  proceedings, — 
this  Convention  consummated  the  object  for  which  it  was  called.  It 


PROTECTION   TO   MAN   THE   AMERICAN   SYSTEM.  53 

has  presented  to  the  country  a  platform  of  principles,  and  candidates 
who  are  the  exponents  of  these  principles.  In  their  support  the  repre 
sentatives  of  the  parties  there  assembled,  —  whigs,  democrats,  and 
liberty  men, — all  united.  In  the  strength  and  completeness  of  this 
union,  I  am  reminded  of  the  Mississippi,  Father  of  Rivers,  where  the 
commingling  waters  of  the  Missouri  and  Ohio  are  lost  in  one  broad, 
united,  irresistible  current,  in  one  channel  descending  to  the  sea. 

The  principles  which  caused  this  union  have  already  been  widely 
received,  and  will  be  responded  to  by  this  vast  assembly.  Look  at 
them.  They  are  frankly  and  explicitly  expressed.  They  were  solemnly 
and  deliberately  considered  by  a  large  committee,  and  enthusiastically 
adopted  in  the  Convention.  They  not  only  propose  to  guard  the  ter 
ritories  against  Slavery,  but  to  relieve  the  Federal  Government  from 
all  responsibility  therefor,  everywhere  within  the  sphere  of  its  consti 
tutional  powers.  In  short,  on  the  subject  of  Slavery,  they  adopt  sub 
stantially  the  prayer  of  Franklin,  who  by  formal  petition  called  upon 
Congress  "  to  step  to  the  verge  of  its  constitutional  power  to  discour 
age  every  species  of  traffic  in  human  flesh."  They  propose  to  bring 
back  the  government  to  the  truths  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
and  to  the  principles  of  the  fathers,  to  the  end  that  it  shall  be  admin 
istered  no  longer  in  the  spirit  of  Slavery,  but  in  the  spirit  of  Freedom. 

It  is  no  longer  banks  and  tariffs  which  are  to  occupy  the  foremost 
place  in  our  discussions,  and  to  give  their  tone,  sounding  always  with 
the  chink  of  dollars  and  cents,  to  the  policy  of  the  country.  Hence 
forward,  PROTECTION  TO  MAN  shall  be  the  true  AMERICAN  SYSTEM. 

The  candidates  selected  as  the  exponents  of  these  principles  have 
claims  upon  your  support,  in  forgetfulness  of  all  former  differences  of 
opinion.  They  were  brought  forward,  not  because  of  the  past,  but  the 
present ;  I  may  add,  they  were  sustained  in  the  Convention  by  many 
persons,  notwithstanding  the  past.  I  name  them  with  pride  :  Martin 
Van  Buren,  the  New  York  democrat,  and  Charles  Francis  Adams,  the 
Massachusetts  whig.  But  these  designations  can  no  longer  denote  dif 
ferent  principles.  Those  to  whom  they  are  applied,  whether  democrat 
or  whig,  concur  in  making  opposition  to  Slavery  and  the  Slave  Power 
the  paramount  principle  of  political  action.  The  designations  may  now 
be  interchanged.  Mr.  Adams  may  be  properly  hailed  as  a  New  York 
democrat,  and  Mr.  Van  Buren  as  a  Massachusetts  whig. 

There  are  many  here,  doubtless,  among  those  once  connected  with 
the  whig  party,  who,  like  myself  on  former  occasions,  have  voted 
against  Mr.  Van  Buren,  and  who  regard  some  portion  of  his  career  with 


54      THE  CANDIDATES — VAN  BUREN  AND  ADAMS. 

anything  but  satisfaction.  Mr.  Adams  is  a  younger  man  ;  but  there  are 
some,  doubtless,  among  those  once  connected  with  the  democratic 
party,  who  have  voted  against  him.  But  these  differences,  and  the 
prejudices  they  have  engendered,  are  all  forgotten,  absorbed,  and  lost 
in  the  entire  sympathy  with  their  present  position.  Time  changes,  and 
we  change  with  it.  He  has  lived  to  little  purpose,  whose  mind  and 
character  continue,  through  a  lapse  of  years,  untouched  by  these  muta 
tions.  It  is  not  foj  the  Van  Buren  of  1838  that  we  are  to  vote  ;  but 
for  the  Van  Buren  of  to-day, — the  veteran  statesman,  sagacious,  deter 
mined,  experienced, — who,  at  an  age  when  most  men  are  rejoicing  to 
put  off  their  armor,  girds  himself  anew,  and  enters  the  list  as  the  cham 
pion  of  Freedom.  Having  implicit  confidence  in  the  sincerity  and 
earnestness  of  his  devotion  to  the  cause,  and  in  his  ability  to  maintain 
it  to  a  successful  result,  I  call  upon  you,  as  you  love  Freedom,  and 
value  the  fair  fame  of  your  country,  now  dishonored,  to  render  him  your 
earnest  and  enthusiastic  support. 

Of  Mr.  Adams  I  need  say  nothing  in  this  place,  where  his  honorable 
and  efficient  public  services,  and  his  private  life,  are  so  familiar.  Stand 
ing  as  I  now  do  beneath  the  images  of  his  father  and  grandfather,  it  will 
be  sufficient  if  I  say  that  he  is  the  heir,  not  only  to  their  name,  but  to 
the  virtues,  the  abilities,  and  the  indomitable  spirit  that  rendered  that 
name  so  illustrious. 

Such  are  our  principles,  and  such  our  candidates.  We  present  them 
fearlessly  to  the  country.  Upon  the  people  depends  the  question, 
whether  their  certain  triumph  shall  be  immediate  or  postponed  ;  for 
triumph  they  must.  The  old  and  ill-compacted  party  organizations  are 
broken,  and  from  their  ruins  is  now  formed  a  new  party,  The  Party  of 
Freedom.  There  are  good  men  who  longed  for  this,  and  have  died  with 
out  the  sight.  John  Quincy  Adams  longed  for  it.  William  Ellery 
Channing  longed  for  it.  Their  spirits  hover  over  us,  and  urge  us  to 
persevere.  Let  us  be  true  to  the  moral  grandeur  of  our  cause.  Have 
faith  in  Truth  and  in  God,  who  giveth  the  victory. 

Oh,  a  fair  cause  stands  firm  and  will  abide  ; 
Legions  of  angels  fight  upon  its  side  ! 

Fellow-citizens,  I  am  tempted  to  exclaim,  seeing  the  spirit  which  ani 
mates  your  faces,  that  the  work  is  already  done  to-night — that  the  vic 
tory  is  already  achieved.  But  I  would  not  lull  you  to  the  repose  which 
springs  from  too  great  confidence.  I  would  rather  arouse  you  to  renewed 
and  incessant  exertions.  A  great  cause  is  staked  upon  your  constancy  ; 
for  without  you,  where  among  us  would  Freedom  find  its  defenders  ? 


WASHINGTON — LAFAYETTE— OTIS — HENRY.  5  5 

The  sentiment  of  opposition  to  the  Slave  Power,  to  the  extension  of 
Slavery,  and  to  its  longer  continuance  under  the  Constitution  wherever 
the  Federal  Government  is  responsible  for  it,  though  recognized  by  in 
dividuals,  and  adopted  also  by  a  small  and  faithful  party,  has  now  for 
the  first  time  become  the  leading  principle  of  a  broad,  formidable,  and 
national  organization.  It  is  indeed,  as  Mr.  Webster  has  lately  said,  no 
new  idea;  it  is  as  old  as  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  But  it  is 
an  idea  now  for  the  first  time  recognized  by  a  great  political  party ;  for 
if  the  old  parties  had  been  true  to  it,  there  would  have  been  no  occa 
sion  for  our  organization.  It  is  said  our  idea  is  sectional.  How  is  this? 
Because  the  slaveholders  live  at  the  South  ?  As  well  might  we  say 
that  the  tariff  is  sectional,  because  the  manufacturers  live  at  the  North. 
It  is  said  that  we  have  but  one  idea.  This  I  deny ;  but  admitting 
that  it  is  so,  are  we  not,  with  our  one  idea,  better  than  a  party  with  no 
ideas  at  all  ?  And  what  is  our  one  idea?  It  is  the  idea  which  com 
bined  our  fathers  on  the  heights  of  Bunker  Hill.  It  is  the  idea  which 
carried  Washington  through  a  seven  years'  war  ;  which  inspired  Lafa 
yette  ;  which  touched  with  coals  of  fire  the  lips  of  Adams,  Otis,  and 
Patrick  Henry.  Ours  is  an  idea  which  is,  at  least,  noble  and  elevating ; 
it  is  an  idea  which  draws  in  its  train  virtue,  goodness,  and  all  the 
charities  of  life — all  that  makes  earth  a  home  of  improvement  and 
happiness. 

Her  path  where'er  the  goddess  roves, 

Glory  pursues,  and  generous  shame, 

The  unconquerable  mind,  and  freedom's  holy  flame. 

We  found  now  a  new  party.  Its  corner-stone  is  Freedom.  Its  broad, 
all-sustaining  arches  are  Truth,  Justice,  and  Humanity.  Like  the  an 
cient  Roman  Capitol,  at  once  a  Temple  and  a  Citadel,  it  shall  be  the  fit 
shrine  of  the  genius  of  American  institutions. 

XL 

The  National  and  State  elections  of  1848  had  come 
and  gone.  The  Free-soil  Party,  which  was  afterwards 
to  control  the  government,  and  give  an  entirely  new 
direction  to  public  affairs,  was  slowly  forming,  and  where- 
ever  the  great  issues  were  made  and  met,  the  friends  of 
Freedom  had  been  steadily  gaining  ground.  Strange 


56  SOME  PRACTICAL   PLAN   FOR   ACTION. 

as  it  may  seem,  the  hardest  work  in  this  great  battle 
had  to  be  fought  in  Massachusetts,  where  Mr.  Sumner 
was  the  acknowledged  leader  of  the  Liberal  host. 
Clothed  with  no  official  dignity  or  power,  to  give  pres 
tige  to  his  words  or  actions, -he  was  already  commanding 
a  national  influence  which  ma  !e  every  speech  delivered 
in  Massachusetts  effective  far  beyond  the  bounds  of  the 
State.  John  Quincy  Adams  had  died  at  his  post,  the 
last  undismayed  champion  of  the  Revolutionary  school 
of  Freedom,  his  heart  still  burning  with  the  love  of 
liberty,  and  the  eloquent  utterances  of  freedom  still  fresh 
from  his  lips.  But  his  son,  Charles  Francis,  had  already 
come  forward  in  the  same  spirit,  to  tread  in  the  steps  of 
his  father,  and  in  all  quarters  the  roused  spirit  of  insulted 
American  liberty  was  no  longer  to  cower  back  from  the 
presence  of  her  foes.  But  there  was  yet  lacking,  as 
there  always  is  in  such  reforms,  a  practical  plan  of  oper 
ations,  to  give  effect  to  the  efforts  of  the  friends  of  freedom. 
By  the  great  majority  of  them,  the  radical  Anti-slavery 
men  were  still  looked  upon  as  fanatical,  and  generally, 
as  hostile  to  the  Constitution ;  many  of  them,  like  Mr. 
Garrison,  regarding  it  as  the  chief  impediment,  not  only 
to  emancipation,  but  to  the  spread  of  slavery  itself. 
Much  had  been  done  at  Buffalo  by  the  enunciations  made 
in  the  Platform,  and  the  nomination  of  candidates  pledg 
ed  to  resist  the  further  encroachments  of  slavery  ;  and 
around  them  a  large  body  of  voters  had  gathered  at  the 
ballot-box.  But  the  great  mass  of  the  people  had  yet 
no  clear  idea  of  any  practical  plan  of  operations,  that 
could  be  carried  out  without  open  war  upon  the  Consti 
tution.  At  this  time — September  12,  1849 — a  Free-soil 
Convention  met  at  Worcester,  and  Mr.  Sumner  was  in 
vited  to  present  an  address  explaining  and  vindicating 


SPEECH   AT   THE   WORCESTER   CONVENTION.  $? 

the  Free-soil  movement,  and  that  address  was  adopted 
by  the  Convention.  As  nothing  appeared  at  the  time 
which  put  forth  so  clearly,  or  with  so  much  power,  the 
great  issue  which  was  coming  before  the  nation,  we  shall 
make  as  copious  extracts  from  that  address,  as  our  space 
will  admit ;  for  it  will  give  every  reader  a  better  under 
standing  of  the  state  of  public  feeling  at  the  time,  and 
serve  as  a  chart  for  tracing  the  early  progress  of  the 
mighty  movement  then  starting,  which  will  hereafter 
doubtless  be  regarded  as  the  most  important  feature  in 
the  political  history  of  this  nation,  since  the  adoption  of 
the  Federal  Constitution.  Omnipresent,  as  Mr.  Sumner 
then  declared  the  great  issue  to  be,  wherever  any  poli 
tical  election  occurred,  it  was  never  to  cease  to  challenge 
attention,  until,  in  his  own  language,  "  at  least  two  things 
are  accomplished  :  first,  the  divorce  of  the  Federal  Go 
vernment  from  all  support  or  sanction  of  Slavery ;  and 
secondly,  the  conversion  of  this  government,  within  its 
Constitutional  limits,  to  the  cause  of  Freedom,  so  that  it 
shall  become  Freedom's  open,  active,  and  perpetual 
ally." 

Impressed  by  the  magnitude  of  these  interests, — devoted  to  the 
triumph  of  the  righteous  cause, — solicitous  of  the  true  welfare  of  the 
country, — animated  by  the  example  of  the  Fathers  of  the  Republic, 
and  desirous  of  breathing  their  spirit  into  our  Government,  the  Free 
Democracy  of  Massachusetts,  in  Convention  assembled  at  Worcester, 
no\v  address  their  fellow-citizens  throughout  the  Commonwealth. 
Imperfectly,  according  to  the  necessity  of  the  occasion — earnestly, 
according  to  the  fulness  of  their  convictions — hopefully,  according  to 
the  confidence  of  their  aspirations,  they  will  proceed  to  unfold  the 
reasons  of  their  appeal.  They  now  ask  your  best  attention.  They 
trust,  through  this,  to  secure  your  votes. 

Our  Party  a  permanent  National  Party. — Fellow-citizens  ;  we  make 
our  appeal  as  a  National  party,  established  to  promote  principles 
deemed  to  be  of  paramount  importance  to  the  country.  In  assuming 


$8  A   PERMANENT   NATIONAL   PARTY. 

our  place  as  a  distinct  party,  we  simply  give  form  and  direction,  in 
harmony  with  the  usage  and  the  genius  of  popular  governments,  to  a 
Movement  which  stirs  the  whole  country,  and  does  not  find  an  ade 
quate  and  constant  organ  in  either  of  the  other  existing  parties.  In 
France,  under  the  royalty  of  Louis  Philippe,  the  faithful  friends  of  the 
yet  unborn  Republic,  formed  a  band  together,  and  by  their  publica 
tions,  speeches,  and  votes,  sought  to  influence  the  public  mind.  Few 
at  first  in  numbers,  they  became  strong  by  united  political  action.  In 
England,  the  most  brilliant  popular  triumph  in  her  history,  the  repeal 
of  the  monopoly  of  the  Corn  Laws,  was  finally  carried,  by  means  of  a 
newly-formed,  but  wide  spread  political  organization,  which  combined 
men  of  all  the  old  parties,  Whigs,  Tories,  and  Radicals,  and  recognized 
opposition  to  the  Corn  Laws  as  a  special  test.  In  the  spirit  of  these 
examples,  the  friends  of  Freedom  have  come  together,  in  well-com 
pacted  ranks,  to  uphold  their  cherished  principles,  and,  by  combined 
efforts,  according  to  the  course  of  parties,  to  urge  them  upon  the 
Government,  and  upon  the  country. 

All  the  old  organizations  have  contributed  to  our  numbers,  and  good 
citizens  have  come  to  us,  who  have  not  heretofore  mingled  in  the  con 
tests  of  party.  Here  are  men  from  the  ancient  democracy,  believing 
all  that  any  democracy  must  be  a  name  only,  no  better  than  sounding 
brass  or  a  tinkling  cymbal,  which  does  not  recognize,  on  every  occa 
sion,  the  supremacy  of  Human  .Rights,  and  which  is  not  ready  to  do 
and  to  suffer  in  their  behalf.  Here  also  are  men,  who  have  come  out 
of  the  Whig  party,  weary  of  its  many  professions,  and  of  its  little  per 
formance,  and  especially  revolting  at  its  recent  sinister  course  with 
regard  to  the  cause  of  Freedom ;  believing  all  that,  in  any  devotion  to 
Human  Rights,  they  cannot  err.  Here  also,  in  solid  legion,  is  the  well- 
tried  band  of  the  Liberty  Party,  to  whom  belongs  the  praise  of  first 
placing  the  cause  of  Freedom  under  the  guardianship  of  a  special 
political  organization,  whose  exclusive  test  was  opposition  to  Slavery. 

In  thus  associating  and  harmonizing  from  opposite  quarters,  in  order 
to  promote  a  common  cause,  we  have  learned  to  forget  former  differ 
ences  of  opinion,  and  to  appreciate  the  motives  of  each  other.  We  have 
learned  how  trivial  are  the  matters  on  which  we  may  disagree,  compared 
with  the  Great  Issue  on  which  we  all  agree.  Old  prejudices  have  van 
ished.  Fven  the  rancors  of  political  antagonism  have  been  changed  and 
dissolved,  as  in  a  potent  alembic,  by  the  natural  irresistible  affinities  of 
Freedom.  In  our  union  we  have  ceased  to  wear  the  badges  of  either 
of  the  old  organizations.  We  hare  become  a  party,  distinct,  independent, 


OLD   PARTY   ISSUES    OBSOLETE.  59 

permanent,  under  the  name  of  the  Free  Democracy.  Thus  in  our  very 
designation  expressing  our  devotion  to  Human  Rights,  and  especially  to 
Human  Freedom. 

Professing  honestly  the  sairfe  sentiments,  wherever  we  exist,  in  all 
parts  of  the  country,  East  and  West,  North  and  South,  we  are  truly  a 
NATIONAL  party.  We  are  not  compelled  to  assume  one  face  at  the 
South  and  another  at  the  North  ;  to  blow  hot  in  one  place,  and  blow 
cold  in  another  ;  to  speak  loudly  of  Freedom  in  one  region,  and  vindi 
cate  Slavery  in  another  ;  in  short,  to  present  a  combination,  in  which 
the  two  extreme  wings  profess  opinions,  on  the  Great  Issue  before  the 
country,  diametrically  opposed  to  each  other.  We  are  the  same  every 
where.  And  the  reason  is,  because  our  party,  unlike  the  other  parties, 
is  bound  together  in  support  of  certain  fixed  and  well-defined  principles. 
It  is  not  a  combination,  fired  by  partisan  zeal,  and  kept  together,  as 
with  mechanical  force,  by  considerations  of  political  expediency  only ; 
but  a  sincere,  conscientious,  inflexible  union  for  the  sake  of  Freedom. 

The  Address  shows  that  all  the  old  Issues  which  had 
hitherto  divided  the  country  were  obsolete ;  that  the 
Bank,  the  Sub-Treasury,  the  Public  Lands,  had  disap 
peared  from  the  political  field,  and  that  even  the  Tariff 
question  could  not  draw  a  distinguishing  line. 

The  devices  of  party  could  no  longer  stave  off  the 
Great  Issue.  Politicians  could  by  no  subterfuge  escape 
it.  Office-seekers  could  not  dodge  it  by  any  trick.  It 
would  mix  itself  up  in  every  election.  Wherever  men 
met  to  speak  of  public  affairs,  it  would  come  up,  in  city, 
village,  field,  workshop  ---  everywhere  the  question 
sounded  in  the  ears  of  men,  would  be,  "Are  you  for 
Freedom,  or  against  it  ?  " 

And  now,  instead  of  these  superseded  questions,  which  were  con 
nected  for  the  most  part  only  with  the  material  interests  of  the  country, 
and  which,  though  not  unimportant  in  their  time,  all  had  the  odor  of  the 
dollar,  you  are  called  to  consider  a  cause  which  is  connected  with  all 
that  is  divine  in  Religion,  with  all  that  is  pure  and  noble  in  Morals,  with 
all  that  is  truly  practical  in  Politics.  Unlike  the  other  questions,  it  is 


60  THE   FOUNDERS   OF  THE   REPUBLIC. 

not  temporary  or  local  in  its  character.  It  belongs  to  all  times,  and  to 
all  countries.  It  is  an  everlasting  link  in  the  golden  chain  of  Human 
Progress.  It  is  a  part  of  the  great  Movement,  under  whose  strong 
pulsations  all  Christendom  now  shakes  from  side  to  side.  It  is  a  cause, 
which,  though  long  kept  in  check  throughout  our  country,  as  also  in 
Europe,  now  confronts  the  people  and  their  rulers,  demanding  to  be 
heard.  It  can  no  longer  be  avoided,  or  silenced.  To  every  man  in 
the  land  it  now  says,  with  clear  penetrating  voice,  "  Are  you  for  Free 
dom,  or  are  you  for  slavery  ?  "  And  every  man  in  the  land  must  answer 
this  question  when  he  votes. 

The  next  point  to  which  attention  was  directed,  was 
the  Anti-slavery  sentiments  of  the  Founders  of  the  Re 
public,  where  a  plain  recital  of  facts  is  given. 

At  the  period  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  there  were  up 
wards  of  half  a  million  of  colored  persons  held  in  slavery  in  the  United 
States.  These  unhappy  people  were  originally  stolen  from  Africa,  or 
were  the  children  of  those  who  had  been  so  stolen,  and,  though  dis 
tributed  throughout  the  whole  country,  were  to  be  found  in  the  largest 
numbers  in  the  Southern  States.  But  the  spirit  of  Freedom  was  then 
abroad  in  the  land.  The  fathers  of  the  Republic,  leaders  in  the  War 
of  Independence,  were  struck  with  the  impious  inconsistency  of  an 
appeal  for  their  own  liberties  while  holding  in  bondage  their  fellow- 
men,  "guilty  of  a  skin  not  colored  like  their  own."  In  private  and  in 
public  they  did  not  hesitate  to  bear  their  testimony  against  the  atrocity. 
The  following  resolution,  passed  at  Darien,  in  Georgia,  in  1775,  and 
preserved  in  the  American  Archives,  (Vol.  i.,  4th  series,  p.  1134,)  speaks, 
in  tones  worthy  of  freemen,  the  sentiments  of  the  time:  "We,  there 
fore,  the  representatives  of  the  extensive  district  of  Darien,  in  the 
Colony  of  Georgia,  having  now  assembled  in  Congress,  by  authority 
and  free  choice  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  said  District,  now  freed  from 
their  fetters,  do  resolve  ; — To  show  the  world  that  we  are  not  influenced 
by  any  contracted  or  interested  motives,  but  by  a  general  philanthropy 
for  all  mankind,  of  whatever  climate,  language,  or  complexion,  we 
hereby  declare  our  disapprobation  and  abhorrence  of  the  unnatural  prac 
tice  of  Slavery  in  America,  however  the  uncultivated  state  of  our 
country,  or  other  specious  arguments  may  plead  for  it ;  a  practice  found 
ed  in  injustice  and  cruelty,  and  highly  dangerous  to  our  liberties  as  well 
as  lives,  debasing  part  of  our  fellow-creatures  below  men,  and  corrupt- 


JEFFERSON   AN   ABOLITIONIST.  6l 

ing  the  virtue  and  morals  of  the  rest,  and  as  laying  the  basis  of  that 
liberty  we  contend  for  (and  which  we  pray  the  Almighty  to  continue  to 
the  latest  posterity)  upon  a  very  wrong  foundation.  We,  therefore, 
resolve  to  use  our  utmost  endeavors  for  the  manumission  of  our  slaves 
in  this  colony,  upon  the  most  safe  and  equitable  footing  for  the  masters 
and  themselves."  Would  that  such  a  voice  could  be  heard  once  more 
from  Georgia  ! 

The  spirit  of  Virginia  is  spoken  of,  as  it  found  expres 
sion  through  Jefferson,  who  by  his  precocious  and  im 
mortal  words  against  slavery,  enrolled  himself  among  the 
earliest  Abolitionists  of  the  country. 

In  the  Declaration  of  Independence  he  embodied  sentiments,  which, 
when  practically  applied,  will  give  Freedom  to  every  Slave  throughout 
the  land.  "  We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident,"  says  our  country 
speaking  by  his  voice,  "that  all  men  are  created  equal — that  they  are 
endowed  with  certain  inalienable  rights — that  among  these  are  life, 
liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness."  And  again,  in  the  Congress  of 
the  Confederation,  he  brought  forward,  as  early  as  1784,  a  resolution  to 
exclude  Slavery  from  all  the  territory  "ceded  or  to  be  ceded"  by  the 
States  of  the  Federal  Government,  and  including  the  territory  now  cov 
ered  by  Tennessee,  Mississippi  and  Alabama.  Lost  at  first  by  a  single 
vote  only,  this  measure  was  substantially  renewed  at  a  subsequent  day 
by  a  son  of  Massachusetts,  and  in  178  7  was  finally  confirmed,  in  the 
Ordinance  of  the  North-Western  Territory,  by  a  unanimous  vote  of  the 
States  and  their  respective  delegates. 

The  same  spirit  is  discerned  in  the  Federal  Constitu 
tion  which  was  adopted  in  1788,  where  express  provision 
was  made  for  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade,  the  discredit 
able  words  slave  and  slavery  being  allowed  no  place  in 
that  sacred  instrument ;  while  a  clause  subsequently 
added,  specifically  declared  that  "  no  person  shall  be  de 
prived  of  life,  liberty  or  property,  without  due  process  of 
law." 

It  is  evident,  from  a  perusal  of  the  debates  on  the  Federal  Constitu 
tion,  that  Slavery,  like  the  slave  trade,  was  regarded  as  temporary ;  and 


62  FRANKLIN'S  ABOLITION  PETITION. 

it  seems  to  have  been  supposed  by  many  that  they  would  both  disap 
pear  together.  Nor  do  any  words  employed  in  our  day  denounce  it 
with  an  indignation  more  burning  than  that  which  glowed  on  the  lips 
of  the  fathers.  Mr.  Morris,  of  Pennsylvania,  said  in  Convention,  that 
"he  would  never  concur  in  upholding  domestic  slavery.  It  is  a  nefari 
ous  institution."  In  another  mood,  and  with  mild  judicial  phrase,  Mr. 
Madison  "  thought  it  wrong  to  admit  in  the  Constitution  the  idea  of 
property  in  man."  And  Washington,  in  a  letter  written  near  this 
period,  says,  with  a  frankness  worthy  of  imitation,  "  There  is  but  one 
proper  and  effectual  mode  by  which  the  abolition  of  slavery  can  be  ac 
complished,  and  that  is  by  legislative  action,  and  this  as  far  as  my 
suffrage  will  go,  shall  never  be  wanting" 

When  the  earliest  Congress  assembled,  under  the 
Constitution,  a  petition  was  early  presented  from  the 
Abolition  Society  of  Pennsylvania,  signed  by  Benjamin 
Franklin,  as  President. 

This  venerable  man,  whose  active  life  had  been  devoted  to  the 
welfare  of  mankind  at  home  and  abroad,  who  both  as  a  philosopher  and 
a  statesman  had  arrested  the  attention  of  the  world, — who  had  ravished 
the  lightning  from  the  skies,  and  the  sceptre  from  a  tyrant, — who,  as  a 
member  of  the  Continental  Congress,  had  set  his  name  to  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence,  and  as  a  member  of  the  Convention,  had  again 
set  his  name  to  the  Federal  Constitution, — in  whom,  more  perhaps 
than  in  any  other  person,  the  true  spirit  of  American  institutions,  at 
once  practical  and  humane,  was  embodied, — than  whom  no  one  could  be 
more  familiar  with  the  purposes  and  aspirations  of  the  founders, — this 
veteran,  eighty-four  years  of  age,  within  a  few  months  only  of  his  death, 
now  appeared  by  his  petition  at  the  bar  of  that  Congress,  whose  powers 
he  had  helped  to  define  and  establish.  "Your  memorialists,"  he  says, 
and  this  Convention  now  repeats  the  words  of  Franklin,  "  particularly 
engaged  in  attending  to  the  distresses  arising  from  slavery,  believe  it  to 
be  their  indispensable  duty  to  present  this  subject  to  your  notice.  They 
have  observed  with  real  satisfaction  that  many  important  and  salutary 
powers  are  vested  in  you  for  promoting  the  welfare  and  securing  the 
blessings  of  liberty  to  the  people  of  the  United  States;  and  as  they 
conceive  that  these  blessings  ought  rightfully  to  be  administered,  with 
out  distinction  of  color,  to  all  descriptions  of  people,  so  they  indulge 


THE   COUNTRY   BECOMES   PRO-SLAVERY.  63 

themselves  in  the  pleasing  expectation,  that  nothing  which  can  be  done 
for  the  relief  of  the  unhappy  objects  of  their  care,  will  be  either  omitted  or 
delayed'1  And  the  memorialists  conclude  as  follows  :  "  Under  these 
impressions  they  earnestly  entreat  your  serious  attention  to  the  subject 
of  Slavery  ;  that  you  will  be  pleased  to  countenance  the  restoration  of 
liberty  to  those  unhappy  men,  who  alone,  in  this  land  of  Freedom,  are 
degraded  into  perpetual  bondage,  and  who,  amidst  the  general  joy  of 
surrounding  freemen,  are  groaning  in  servile  subjection  ;  that  you  will 
promote  mercy  and  justice  towards  this  distressed  race,  and  that  you 
will  step  to  the  very  verge  of  the  power  vested  in  you  for  DISCOURAG 
ING  every  species  of  traffic  in  the  persons  of  our  fellow -men" 

The  Address  also  makes  the  assertion — which  is  an 
historical  fact  not  often  alluded  to — that  at  the  time,  no 
where,  under  the  Federal  Government,  did  slavery  ex 
ist.  It  was  in  States  only,  skulking  beneath  the  shelter 
of  local  laws,  that  it  was  allowed  to  remain. 

But  the  country  had  changed  from  Anti-slavery  to 
Pro-slavery.  The  generous  sentiments  which  filled  the 
souls  of  the  early  patriots,  had  been  impressed  upon  the 
government  they  founded,  as  it  was  upon  the  coin  they 
circulated — the  image  and  superscription  of  LIBERTY. 
But  the  blessings  of  Freedom  being  secured  to  them 
selves,  the  freemen  of  the  land  grew  indifferent  to  the 
freedom  of  others  :  they  ceased  to  think  of  the  slaves. 
The  slave-masters  were  but  few  in  numbers,  even  in  the 
slave  States  ;  but  by  persevering  union  among  them 
selves,  and  through  skilful  tactics  carrying  their  influ 
ence  with  whatever  party  was  in  power,  to  promote 
their  personal  interests,  they  succeeded  through  a  long 
period  of  years,  in  obtaining  control  of  the  Federal  Gov 
ernment,  which  resulted  in  a  fundamental  change  in  its 
character. 

The  Usurpations  and  Aggressions  of  the  Slave  Power. — Look  at  the 
extent  to  which  this  malign  influence  has  predominated.  The  Slave 


64         CATALOGUE  OF  SLAVERY  AGGRESSIONS. 

States  are  far  inferior  to  the  Free  States  in  population,  in  wealth,  in 
education,  in  libraries,  in  resources  of  all  kinds,  and  yet  they  have  taken 
to  themselves  the  lion's  share  of  the  offices  of  honor  and  profit  under 
the  Constitution.  They  have  held  the  presidency  for  fifty-seven  years, 
while  the  Free  States  have  held  it  for  twelve  years  only.  But  without 
pursuing  the  exposition  of  this  game  of  political  "  sweep-stakes,"  which 
the  Slave  Power  has  perpetually  played,  let  us  present  what  is  more 
important,  as  indicative  of  its  spirit — the  aggressions  and  usurpations 
by  which  it  has  turned  the  Federal  Government  from  its  original  cha 
racter  of  Freedom,  and  prostituted  it  to  Slavery. 

The  following  catalogue  is  given,  which  should  be 
carefully  noticed  : 

Early  in  this  century,  when  the  District  of  Columbia  was  finally  oc 
cupied  as  the  national  capital,  the  Slave  Power  succeeded,  in  defiance 
of  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution,  and  even  of  the  express  letter  of  one  of 
its  amendments,  in  securing  for  Slavery,  within  the  District,  the  counte 
nance  of  the  Federal  Government.  Until  then  Slavery  had  existed 
nowhere  within  the  exclusive  jurisdiction  of  this  Government. 

It  next  secured  for  Slavery  another  recognition  under  the  Federal 
Government,  in  the  broad  territory  of  Louisiana,  purchased  from 
France. 

It  next  placed  Slavery  again  under  the  sanction  of  the  Federal  Govern 
ment,  in  the  territory  of  Florida,  purchased  from  Spain. 

Waxing  powerful,  it  was  able,  after  a  severe  struggle,  to  dictate  terms 
to  the  Federal  Government,  in  the  Missouri  Compromise,  compel 
ling  it  to  receive  that  State  into  the  Union  with  a  slave-holding  Con 
stitution. 

It  instigated  and  carried  on  a  most  expensive  war  in  Florida,  mainly 
to  recover  fugitive  slaves,  thus  employing  the  army  of  the  United 
States  as  slave-catchers. 

It  wrested  from  Mexico  the  Province  of  Texas  in  order  to  extend 
Slavery,  and  triumphing  over  all  opposition,  finally  secured  its  admission 
into  the  Union  with  a  Constitution  making  Slavery  perpetual. 

It  next  plunged  the  country  in  war  with  Mexico,  in  order  to  gain 
new  lands  for  Slavery. 

With  the  meanness,  as  well  as  the  insolence  of  tyranny,  it  has  com 
pelled  the  Federal  Government  to  abstain  from  acknowledging  the 


USURPATIONS   OF   SLAVERY.  65 

neighbor  republic  of  Hayti,  where  slaves  have  become  freemen,  and 
established  an  independent  nation. 

It  has  compelled  the  Federal  Government  to  stoop  ignobly  and  in 
vain,  before  the  British  Queen,  to  secure  compensation  for  slaves,  who, 
in  the  exercise  of  the  natural  rights  of  man,  had  asserted  and  achieved 
their  Freedom  on  the  Atlantic  ocean,  and  afterwards  sought  shelter  in 
Bermuda. 

It  has  compelled  the  Federal  Government  to  seek  to  negotiate 
treaties  for  the  surrender  of  fugitive  slaves,  thus  making  it  assert  pro 
perty  in  human  flesh. 

It  has  joined  in  declaring  the  foreign  slave  trade  piracy,  but  insists 
upon  the  coastwise  slave  tiade,  with  the  sanction  of  the  Federal 
Government. 

For  several  years  it  rejected  the  petitions  to  Congress  adverse  to 
Slavery,  thus,  in  order  to  shield  Slavery,  practically  denying  the  right  of 
petition. 

It  denies  to  the  free  colored  citizens  of  Massachusetts  the  privileges 
secured  to  them  tinder  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  by  im 
prisoning  them,  and  sometimes  selling  them  into  Slavery. 

It  insulted  and  exiled  from  Charleston  and  New  Orleans,  the 
honored  representatives  of  Massachusetts  who  were  sent  to  those 
places  in  order  to  throw  the  shield  of  the  Constitution  over  her  colored 
citizens. 

It  has,  by  the  pen  of  Mr.  Calhoun,  as  Secretary  of  State,  in  formal 
dispatches,  made  the  Republic  stand  before  the  nations  of  the  earth  as 
the  vindicator  of  Slavery. 

It  has  put  forth  the  hideous  effrontery  that  Slavery  can  go  to  all  new 
ly  acquired  territories,  and  have  the  protection  of  the  national  flag. 

Such  are  some  of  the  usurpations  and  aggressions  of  the  Slave  Power  ! 
By  such  steps  the  Federal  Government  has  been  perverted  from  its 
original  purposes,  its  character  changed,  and  its  powers  subjected  to 
Slavery.  It  is  pitiful  to  see  Freedom  suffer  at  any  time  from  any 
hands.  It  is  doubly  pitiful  when  she  suffers  from  a  Government,  whose 
earliest  energies  were  inspired  by  her  breath,  and  who  learned  by  her 
teachings  to  be  strong. 

So  the  struck  eagle,  stretched  upon  the  plain, 
No  more  through  rolling  clouds  to  soar  again, 
Viewed  his  own  feather  on  the  fatal  dart, 
And  winged  the  shaft  that  quivered  in  his  heart. 

5 


66  DEGRADING   INFLUENCE   OF   SLAVERY. 

Keen  were  his  pangs,  but  keener  far  to  feel, 
He  nursed  the  pinion  which  impelled  the  steel, 
While  the  same  plumage  that  had  warmed  his  nest 
Drank  the  last  life-drop  of  his  bleeding  breast. 

A  frightful,  but  a  true  picture,  is  drawn  of  the  evils  of 
slavery,  where  it  existed  ;  not  least  of  which  was  that 
for  the  husband  and  wife  there  is  no  marriage.  The 

o 

mother  has  no  assurance  that  her  infant  child  will  not  be 
torn  from  her  breast,  since  for  all  who  bear  the  name  of 
Slave,  there  is  nothing  which  they  can  call  their  own. 
But  the  bondman  is  not  the  only  sufferer — he  does  not 
sit  alone,  in  his  degradation. 

By  his  side  is  his  master,  who,  in  the  debasing  influences  on  his  own 
soul,  is  compelled  to  share  the  degradation  to  which  he  dooms  his  fel 
low-man.  "  He  must  be  a  prodigy,"  says  Jefferson,  "  who  can  retain 
ihis  manners  and  morals  undepraved  by  such  circumstances."  And  this 
:is  not  all.  The  whole  social  fabric  is  disorganized  ;  labor  loses  its  dig- 
mity ;  industry  sickens ;  education  finds  no  schools  ;  religion  finds  no 
•  churches  ;  and  all  the  land  of  Slavery  is  impoverished. 

The  address  then  reaches  the  main  question,  that  was 
soon  to  be  determined,  and  which  constituted  the  rally- 
ing-cry  of  the  rising  Party. 

Shall  Slavery  be  extended '? — And  now  at  last  the  Slave  Power  threat 
ens  to  carry  Slavery  to  the  vast  regions  of  New  Mexico  and  California, 
existing  territories  of  the  United  States,  already  purged  of  this  evil  by 
the  express  legislation  of  the  recent  Mexican  government.  It  is  the 
immediate  urgency  of  this  question  that  has  contributed  to  arouse  the 
'Country  to  the  successive  aggressions  of  the  Slave  Power,  and  to  its 
undue  influence  over  the  Federal  Government.  This  is  without  doubt 
the  most  pressing  form  in  which  the  Great  Issue  can  be  presented. 
Nor  can  it  be  exaggerated.  These  territories,  excluding  Oregon, 
embrace  upwards  of  five  hundred  thousand  square  miles.  The  im 
mensity  of  this  tract  may  be  partially  comprehended,  when  we  con 
sider  that  Massachusetts  contains  only  7,800  miles,  all  New  Eng- 


THE   REMEDY— SLAVERY   PROHIBITION.  6/ 

land  only  66,280,  and  all  the  original  thirteen  States,  which  declared 
independence,  only  352,000.  And  the  distinct  question  is  presented, 
whether  the  Federal  Government  shall  carry  to  this  imperial  region  the 
curse  of  Slavery,  with  its  monstrous  brood  of  ignorance,  poverty,  and 
degradation;  or  Freedom,  with  her  attendant  train  of  blessings. 

The  only  remedy  that  can  be  applied : — It  thus  be 
came  plain  enough,  that  in  order  to  secure  freedom  in 
the  Territories,  slavery  there  must  be  prohibited  by  an 
Act  of  Congress. 

A  direct  Prohibition  by  Congress  necessary  to  prevent  Extension  of 
Slavery.  — An  attempt  has  been  made  to  divert  attention  from  this 
question,  by  denying  the  necessity  of  legislation  by  Congress  to  pre 
vent  the  extension  of  Slavery  to  California,  on  the  ground  that  the 
climate  and  physical  condition  of  the  territory  furnish  natural  obstacles 
to  its  existence  there.  This  is  a  weak  device  of  the  enemy.  It  is  well 
known  that  Slavery  did  exist  there  for  many  years,  until  excluded  by 
law, — that  California  lies  in  the  same  range  of  latitude  as  the  Slave 
States  of  the  Union,  and  it  may  be  added  also,  as  the  Barbary  States  of 
Africa, — that  the  mineral  wealth  of  California  creates  a  demand  for 
slave  labor,  which  would  overcome  any  physical  obstacles  to  its  intro 
duction, — that  slavery  has  existed  in  every  country  from  which  it  was  not 
excluded  by  the  laws  or  religion  of  the  people, — and  still  further,  it  is 
an  undeniable  fact,  that  slaves  have  already  been  taken  into  California 
and  publicly  sold  there  at  enormous  prices,  and  thousands  are  now  on 
thJr  way  thither  from  the  Southern  States  and  from  South  America.  In 
support  of  this  last  statement  numerous  authorities,  might  be  adduced. 
It  is  stated  that  a  member  of  Congress  from  Tennessee  has  recently 
declared,  that,  within  his  own  knowledge,  there  would  be  taken  to 
California,  during  the  summer  just  passed,  from  ten  to  twelve  thousand 
slaves.  And  another  person  states,  from  reliable  evidence,  that  whole 
families  are  moving  with  their  slaves  from  Tennessee,  Arkansas,  and 
Missouri.  Mr.  Rowe,  under  date  of  May  13,  at  Independence,  Mo., 
on  his  way  to  the  Pacific,  writes  to  the  paper,  of  which  he  was  recently 
the  editor,  the  Belfast  Journal,  Maine, — "1  have  seen  as  many  as  a 
dozen  teams  going  along  with  their  families  of  slaves"  And  Mr. 
Boggs,  once  Governor  of  Missouri,  now  a  resident  of  California,  is 
quoted  as  writing  to  a  friend  at  home  as  follows, — "  If  your  sons  will 
bring  out  two  or  three  negroes,  who  can  cook  and  attend  at  a  hotel, 


68  THE   WILMOT   PROVISO. 

your  brother  will  pay  cash  for  them  at  a  good  profit,  and  take  it  as  a 
great  favor." 

The  Wilmot  Proviso  next  receives  the  notice  of  the 
address.  An  obscure  member  of  Congress  from  the 
State  of  Pennsylvania,  but  who  became  a  powerful 
champion  of  the  new  Party,  had  introduced  a  resolution 
prohibiting  the  extension  of  slavery  over  soil  then  free. 
This  measure  was  earnestly  endorsed,  in  the  following 
words : 

To  the  end  that  the  country  and  the  age  may  not  witness  the  foul  sin 
of  a  Republic  dedicated  to  Freedom,  pouring  into  vast  unsettled  lands, 
as  into  the  veins  of  an  infant,  the  festering  poison  of  Slavery,  destined 
as  time  advances,  to  show  itself  only  in  cancers  and  leprous  disease, 
we  pledge  ourselves  to  unremitting  endeavors  to  procure  the  passage 
of  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  or  some  other  form  of  Congressional  legisla 
tion,  prohibiting  slavery  in  the  territories,  without  equivocation  or  com 
promise  of  any  kind. 

But  the  Worcester  men  advanced  still  further,  and 
pressed  upon  the  public  the  question  of  moral  responsi 
bility  in  "opposition  to  Slavery  wherever  we  are  respon 
sible  for  it"  standing  upon  the  ground  of  principle  that 
Slavery  is  wrong" ;  that  no  human  legislation  can  elevate 
into  respectability  the  blasphemy  of  tyranny,  that  man 
can  hold  property  in  his  fellow-man  : 

Wherever  we  are  responsible  for  Slavery,  we  oppose  it.  Our  oppo 
sition  is  co-extensive  with  our  responsibility.  In  the  States,  Slavery  is 
sustained  by  local  laws  ;  and  although  we  may  be  compelled  to  share 
the  stigma  which  its  presence  inflicts  upon  the  fair  fame  of  the  country, 
yet  it  receives  no  direct  sanction  at  our  hands.  We  are  not  responsible 
for  it  there.  The  Federal  Government,  in  whom  we  are  represented, 
is  not  responsible  for  it  there.  The  evil  is  not  at  our  own  particular 
doors.  But  Slavery  everywhere  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States — everywhere  under  the  exclusive  jurisdiction  of  the  Federal 
Government — everywhere  under  the  national  flag — is  at  our  own  par- 


GOVERNMENT   MUST   FAVOR   FREEDOM.  69 

ticular  doors.  The  freemen  of  the  North  are  responsible  for  it  equally 
with  the  traffickers  in  flesh,  who  haunt  the  shambles  of  the  South. 
Nor  will  this  responsibility  cease,  so  long  as  Slavery  continues  to  exist 
in  the  District  of  Columbia,  in  any  territories  of  the  United  States,  or 
anywhere  on  the  high  seas,  beneath  the  protecting  flag  of  the  Republic. 
The  fetters  of  every  slave  within  these  jurisdictions  are  bound  and 
clasped  in  part  by  the  votes  of  Massachusetts.  Their  chains,  as  they 
clank,  seem  to  say,  "  Massachusetts  helps  commit  this  outrage." 

They  were  not  satisfied  with  even  a  complete  "  Di 
vorce  of  the  Federal  Government  from  Slavery  "  —that 
it  should  no  longer  receive  its  sanction  or  support : — 

Federal  Government  must  be  on  the  side  of  Freedom. — In  accom 
plishing  these  specific  changes,  a  new  tone  would  be  given  to  the  Re 
public.  The  Slave  Power  would  be  broken,  and.  Slavery  driven  from 
its  present  intrenchments  under  the  Federal  Government.  The  influ 
ence  of  such  a  change  would  be  incalculable.  The  whole  weight  of 
the  Government  would  then  be  taken  from  the  side  of  Slavery,  where 
it  has  been  placed  by  the  Slave  Power,  and  put  on  the  side  of  Freedom, 
according  to  the  original  purposes  and  aspirations  of  its  founders. 
This  of  itself  is  an  end  for  which  we  should  labor  earnestly,  in  the 
spirit  of  the  Constitution. 

Let  it  never  be  forgotten,  as  the  pole-star  of  our  policy,  that  the 
Federal  Government  must  be  placed  openly,  actively  and  perpetually, 
on  the  side  of  Freedom. 

//  must  be  openly  on  the  side  of  Freedom.  There  must  be  no  equivo 
cation,  concealment,  or  reserve  in  its  opinions.  It  must  not,  like  the 
witches  in  Macbeth,  "palter  in  a  double  sense."  Let  it  avow  itself  dis 
tinctly  and  firmly  as  the  enemy  of  Slavery,  and  thus  give  to  the  friends 
of  Freedom,  now  struggling  throughout  the  Slave  States,  the  advantage 
of  its  countenance. 

//  must  be  actively  on  the  side  of  Freedom.  It  should  not  be  content 
with  bearing  its  testimony  openly.  It  must  act.  Within  the  constitu 
tional  sphere  of  its  influence,  it  must  be  felt  as  the  enemy  of  Slavery. 
Let  it  now  study  to  exert  itself  for  Freedom  as  zealously  and  effectively 
as  for  many  years  it  has  exerted  itself  for  slavery. 

It  must  be  perpetually  on  the  side  of  Freedom.  It  must  not  be  un 
certain,  vacillating  or  temporary,  in  this  beneficent  policy.  Let  it  be 


70  TAYLOR'S  ADMINISTRATION  CONDEMNED. 

fixed  and  constant  in  its  hostility  to  Slavery,  so  that  hereafter  it  shall 
know  no  change. 

Other  national  matters  engaged  the  attention  of  the 
Convention,  such  as  cheap  postage  ;  the  abolition  of  all 
unnecessary  offices  and  salaries  ;  the  election  of  civil 
officers,  as  far  as  practicable,  by  the  people  ;  the  im 
provement  of  rivers  and  harbors,  and  a  general  Home 
stead  Law  for  actual  settlers.  But  these  were  all  of  a 
subordinate  character. 

The  administration  of  Gen.  TAYLOR  having  now  com 
menced,  its  Pro-slavery  character  was  severely  exposed, 
in  the  following  passage  : 

In  support  of  these  principles,  we  felt  it  our  duty  to  oppose  the  elec 
tion  of  General  Cass  and  General  Taylor — both  of  them  being  brought 
forward  under  the  influence  of  the  Slave  Power  ;  the  first,  as  openly 
pledged  against  the  Wilniot  Proviso,  and  the  second,  as  a  large  slave 
holder  and  recent  purchaser  of  slaves,  who  was  not  known,  by  any  acts 
or  declared  opinions,  to  be  hostile  in  any  way  to  Slavery,  or  even 
against  its  extension,  and  who,  from  his  position,  and  from  the  declara 
tions  of  many  of  his  friends  and  neighbors,  was  supposed  to  be  friendly 
to  that  institution.  General  Taylor  was  elected  by  the  people.  And 
now,  while  it  becomes  all  to  regard  his  administration  with  candor,  we 
cannot  forget  our  duty  to  the  cause  which  has  brought  us  together. 
His  most  ardent  supporters  will  not  venture  the  assertion,  that  his  con 
duct  will  bear  the  test  of  the  principles  of  our  party.  We  look  in  vain 
for  any  token  that  the  Federal  Government,  while  in  his  hands,  will  be 
placed,  openly,  actively,  and  perpetually,  on  the  side  of  Freedom.  In 
deed,  all  that  his  "  Free  Soil  "  supporters  vouchsafe,  in  his  behalf,  is  the 
assurance,  that  the  "Second  Washington"  will  not  assume  the  respon 
sibility,  if  the  Wilmot  Proviso  should  receive  the  sanction  of  both 
branches  of  Congress, — if  it  should  prevail  in  the  House  of  Representa 
tives,  and  then,  in  that  citadel  of  slavery,  the  American  Senate — of  ar 
resting  its  final  passage  by  the  Presidential  Veto  !  This  is  all.  The 
first  Washington  freely  declared  his  affinity  with  Anti-Slavery  Societies, 
and  said,  that  in  support  of  any  legislative  measure  for  the  abolition  of 
Slavery,  HIS  SUFFRAGE  SHOULD  NEVER  BE  WANTING. 


ITS   PRO  SLAVERY   CHARACTER.  71 

But  the  character  of  the  Administration  may  be  inferred  from  other 
circumstances.  First. — The  Slave  Power  continues  to  hold  its  lion's 
share  in  the  cabinet,  and  in  the  diplomatic  posts  abroad,  thus  ruling  the 
country  at  home,  and  representing  it  in  foreign  lands.  The  number  of 
votes  cast  in  the  Slave  States,  exclusive  of  South  Carolina,  where  the 
electors  are  chosen  by  the  Legislature,  at  the  last  Presidential  election, 
was  845,050,  while  the  number  of  votes  cast  in  the  Free  States  was 
2,027,006.  And  yet  there  are  four  persons  in  the  cabinet  from  the 
Slave  States,  and  three  only  from  the  Free  States,  while  a  slave-holding 
President  presides  over  all.  The  diplomatic  representation  of  the 
country  at  Paris,  St.  Petersburg,  Vienna,  the  Hague,  Brussels,  Frank 
fort,  Madrid,  Lisbon,  Naples,  Chili,  Mexico,  is  now  confided  to  persons 
from  Slave-holding  States ;  and  at  Rome,  our  Republic  is  represented 
by  the  son  of  the  great  adversary  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  and  in  Berlin, 
by  a  late  Senator,  who  was  rewarded  with  this  high  appointment  in  con 
sideration  of  his  services  to  Slavery  ;  while  the  principles  of  Freedom 
abroad  are  confined  to  the  anxious  care  of  the  recently  appointed 
Minister  to  England.  But  this  is  not  all.  Secondly. — The  administra 
tion,  through  one  of  its  official  organs  at  Washington,  has  made  the 
President  threaten  to  "frown  indignantly"  upon  the  movements  of  the 
friends  of  Freedom  at  the  North,  though  he  has  had  no  word  of  indig 
nation,  and  no  frown,  for  the  schemes  of  disunion  openly  put  forth  by 
the  friends  of  Slavery  at  the  South.  Thirdly. — Mr.  Clayton,  as  Secre 
tary  of  State,  in  defiance  of  justice,  and  in  mockery  of  the  principles 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  has  refused  a  national  passport  to 
a  free-colored  citizen,  alleging  that  by  a  rule  of  his  Department,  pass 
ports  are  not  granted  to  colored  persons.  In  marked  contrast  are  the 
laws  of  Massachusetts,  recognizing  such  persons  as  citizens ;  and  also 
those  words  of  gratitude  and  commendation,  in  which  General  Jackson, 
after  the  battle  of  New  Orleans,  addressed  the  black  soldiers  who  had 
shared,  with  a  "  nobl'e  enthusiasm,"  "the  perils  and  glory  of  their  white 
fellow-citizens."  Fourthly. — The  Post-Office  Department,  in  a  formal 
communication  with  regard  to  what  are  called  "incendiary  publica 
tions,"  has  stated  that  the  Postmaster-General  "leaves  the  whole  sub 
ject  to  the  discretion  of  Postmasters  under  the  authority  of  State  Gov 
ernments."  Here  is  no  word  of  indignation  at  the  idea  that  the  mails 
of  the  United  States  are  exposed  to  lawless  interruption  from  the  parti 
sans  of  Slavery.  The  Post-Office,  intrusted  to  a  son  of  New  England, 
assumes  an  abject  neutrality,  when  the  letters  intrusted  to  its  care  are 
rifled  at  the  instigation  of  the  Slave  Power. 


72  A    NATIONAL   PARTY   NECESSARY. 

The  necessity  of  a  national  organization  is  strongly 
insisted  upon. 

Such  is  the  national  position  of  the  Free  Democracy.  We  are  a 
national  party,  established  for  national  purposes,  such  as  can  be  accom 
plished  by  a  national  party  only.  If  the  principles,  which  we  have  at 
heart,  were  supported  openly,  actively,  constantly,  by  either  of  the  other 
parties,  there  would  be  no  occasion  for  our  organization.  But  what 
ever  may  have  been,  or  whatever  may  now  be,  the  opinions  of  individ 
ual  members  of  these  parties,  it  is  undeniable  that,  as  national  parties, 
they  have  never  opposed  Slavery  in  any  form.  Neither  of  them  has 
ever  sustained  any  measure  for  the  abolition  of  Slavery  in  the  District 
of  Columbia,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  discountenanced  all  such  measures. 
Neither  of  them  has  ever  opposed,  in  any  form,  the  coastwise  slave 
trade  under  the  flag  of  the  United  States.  Neither  of  them  has  opposed 
the  extension  of  Slavery.  Neither  of  them  has  ever  striven  to  divorce 
the  Federal  Government  from  Slavery.  Neither  of  them  has  ever 
labored  to  place  the  Federal  Government  openly,  actively,  and  perpet 
ually  on  the  side  of  Freedom.  Nor  is  there  any  assurance,  satisfactory 
to  persons  not  biassed  by  their  political  associations,  that  either  of  these 
organizations  will  ever,  as  a  national  party,  undertake  the  cause  of 
Freedom. 

There  are  circumstances  in  the  very  constitution  of  these  parties 
which  render  it  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  for  them  to  act  in  this  behalf. 
Constructed  subtly  with  a  view  to  political  success,  they  are  spread  every 
where  throughout  the  Union,  and  the  principles  which  they  uphold  are 
pruned  and  modified  to  meet  existing  states  of  sentiment  in  different 
parts  of  the  country.  Neither  can  venture,  as  a  party,  to  place  itself 
on  the  side  of  Freedom,  because,  by  such  a  course,  it  would  disaffect 
the  slave-holding  support,  which  is  essential  to  its  political  success.  The 
Anti-slavery  resolutions,  passed  by  the  legislatures  of  the  North,  are 
regarded  as  the  expressions  of  individual  or  local  opinion  only,  and  are 
not  suffered  to  control  the  action  of  the  national  party.  To  such  an 
extent  has  this  been  carried,  that  Whigs  of  Massachusetts,  professing 
immitigable  hostility  to  Slavery,  recently  united  in  support  of  a  candi 
date  for  the  Presidency,  in  whose  behalf  the  eminent  slave-holding 
Whig,  Mr.  Berrien,  had  "  implored  his  fellow-citizens  of  Georgia,  Whig 
and  Democratic,  to  forget  for  a  time  their  party  divisions,  and  to  know 
each  other  only  as  Southern  men." 

Fellow-citizens, — Individuals  in  each  of  the  old  parties  strove  in  vain 


FREE-SOILISM    not   SECTIONALISM.  73 

to. produce  a  change,  and  to  induce  them  to  become  the  exponents  of 
the  growing  Anti-slavery  sentiments  of  the  country.  At  Baltimore  and 
Philadelphia,  in  the  great  Conventions  of  these  parties,  Slavery  tri 
umphed.  So  strongly  were  they  both  arrayed  against  Freedom,  and  so 
unrelenting  were  they,  in  ostracism  of  its  generous  supporters — of  all 
who  had  written  or  spoken  in  its  behalf — that  it  is  not  going  too  far  to 
say,  that  if  Jefferson,  or  Franklin,  or  Washington  could  have  descended 
from  their  spheres  above,  and  revisited  the  country  which  they  had 
nobly  dedicated  to  Freedom,  they  could  not,  with  their  well-known  and 
recorded  opinions  against  Slavery,  have  received  a  nomination  for  the 
Presidency  from  either  of  these  Conventions  ! 

To  maintain  the  principles  of  Freedom,  as  they  have  been  set  forth 
in  this  Address,  it  becomes  necessary  to  borrow  a  lesson  from  the  old 
parties — to  learn  from  them  the  importance  of  perseverance,  union,  and 
especially  of  a  distinct  political  organization  in  their  support — and,  pro 
fiting  by  these  instructions,  to  direct  the  efforts  of  the  Friends  of  Free 
dom  everywhere  throughout  the  country  into  this  channel. 

The  charge  of  sectionalism  against  the  Free-soilers  is 
thus  repelled : 

Our  aim  is  in  no  respect  sectional,  but  in  every  respect  national.  It 
is  in  no  respect  against  the  South,  but  against  the  Evil  Spirit,  whose 
chief  home  is  at  the  South,  that  has  obtained  the  control  of  the  Govern 
ment.  As  well  might  it  be  said  that  Jefferson,  Franklin,  and  Washing 
ton  were  sectional,  and  against  the  South. 

It  is  true  that  at  present  a  large  portion  of  the  party  are  at  the  North ; 
but  if  our  cause  is  sectional  on  this  account,  then  is  the  Tariff  sectional, 
because  its  chief  supporters  are  also  in  the  North. 

Unquestionably  there  is  a  particular  class  of  individuals  against  whom 
we  are  obliged  to  act.  These  are  the  slave-masters,  wherever  situated 
throughout  the  country,  constituting,  according  to  recent  calculations, 
not  many  more  than  100,000  in  all.  This  band  has  for  years  acted 
against  the  whole  country,  and  subjugated  it  to  Slavery.  Surely  it  does 
not  become  them,  or  their  partisans,  to  complain  that  an  effort  is  now 
made  to  rally  the  whole  country  against  their  tyranny.  There  are  many 
who  forget  that  the  larger  portion  of  the  people  at  the  South  are  non- 
slaveholders,  interested  equally  with  ourselves — nay,  more  than  we  are 
— in  the  overthrow  of  that  power  which  has  so  long  dictated  its  disas 
trous  and  discreditable  policy  to  the  Government.  To  these  we  may 


74  SAME   PRINCIPLES    IN    STATE   ELECTIONS. 

ultimately  look  for  support,  so  soon  as  our  Movement  is  able  to  furnish 
them  with  the  needful  hope  and  strength. 

If  at  the  present  moment  our  efforts  shall  seem  in  any  respect  sec 
tional  or  against  the  South,  it  is  simply  because  the  chief  opponents  of 
our  principles  are  there.  But  our  principles  are  not  sectional — they  are 
applicable  to  the  whole  Union — nay  more,  to  all  the  human  race.  They 
are  as  universal  as  Man. 

The  inquiry  was  everywhere  made,  "  Why  carry  the 
question  of  Slavery  into  State  elections,  since  at  the 
North  we  have  no  laws  to  enact  on  the  subject?"  It  is 
thus  answered : 

It  is  our  duty  so  to  cast  our  votes  on  all  occasions,  as  most  to  pro 
mote  the  principles  which  we  have  at  heart.  And  it  would  be  wrong  in 
us  to  disregard  the  experience  of  political  history,  both  at  home  and 
abroad,  which  teaches  that  it  is  through  the  constant,  well  directed  or 
ganization  of  party,  that  these  can  be  best  maintained.  The  influence 
which  has  already  been  exerted  by  our  Movement  over  both  the  old 
parties,  and  over  the  general  sentiment  of  the  country,  affords  additional 
encouragement.  And  still  further,  assuming  what  few  will  be  so  hardy 
as  to  deny,  that  it  is  proper  for  people  to  combine  in  parties  to  promote 
their  cherished  convictions,  it  follows,  as  an  irresistible  consequence, 
that  this  combination  should  be  so  made  as  to  be  most  effective  for  the 
purpose  in  view.  What  is  worth  doing,  is  worth  well  doing.  If  men 
unite  in  constructing  the  powerful  and  complex  machine  of  a  political 
organization,  it  must  be  rendered  complete,  and  thoroughly  competent 
to  do  its  work.  This  will  be  admitted  by  all. 

Fellow-citizens,  the  question  again  returns,  "  Are  you  for  Freedom, 
or  are  you  for  Slavery?"  If  you  are  for  Freedom,  do  not  hesitate  to 
support  the  National  party  dedicated  to  this  cause. 

The  Address  closes  with  the  following  appeal : 

Fellow-citizens  :  Such  are  our  principles,  and  such  our  candidates. 
Join  us  in  their  support.  Join  us,  all  who  love  Freedom  and  hate 
Slavery.  Join  us,  all  who  cherish  the  Constitution  and  the  Union. 
Help  us  in  our  endeavors  to  restore  to  them  their  early  virtue.  Join 
us,  all  who  reverence  the  memory  of  the  fathers  of  the  Republic,  and 
would  have  their  spirit  once  more  animate  the  land.  Join  us,  all  who 


RIGHTS   OF   COLORED   PEOPLE   TO   EDUCATION.  /5 

would  have  the  Federal  Government  administered  in  the  spirit  of  Freedom, 
and  not  in  the  spirit  of  Slavery.  The  occasion  is  urgent.  Active,  resolute 
exertions  must  be  made.  It  will  not  become  the  sons  of  the  Pilgrims, 
and  the  sons  of  the  Revolution,  to  be  neutral  in  this  contest.  Such 
was  not  the  temper  of  their  fathers.  In  such  a  contest  neutrality  is 
treason  to  Human  Rights.  In  questions  merely  political,  an  honest 
man  may  stand  neuter ;  but  what  true  heart  can  be  neuter, 
when  the  distinct  question  is  put,  which  we  now  address  to  the 
people  of  Massachusetts,  "Are  you  for  Freedom,  or  are  you  for 
Slavery  ?" 

Finally,  we  appeal  to  the  moral  and  religious  sentiments  of  the 
Commonwealth.  When  these  are  fully  moved,  there  can  be  no  ques 
tion  of  the  result.  We  invoke  the  sympathy  of  the  pulpit  in  our  cause. 
Let  it  preach  deliverance  to  the  captive.  We  call  upon  good  men,  of 
all  sects  and  of  all  parties,  to  lend  us  their  support.  You  all  agree  in 
our  PRINCIPLES.  Do  not  practically  oppose  them,  by  continuing  your 
adhesion  to  a  national  party  that  is  hostile  to  them.  Join  us  in  pro 
claiming  them  through  the  new  Party  of  Freedom.  And  may  God, 
whose  service  is  perfect  freedom,  grant  his  succor  to  our  cause  ! 


XII. 

At  this  early  period  in  the  struggle  between  Slavery 
and  Freedom,  Mr.  Sumner,  who  was  always  thorough 
and  practical  in  the  application  of  principle,  to  every 
act,  and  on  every  occasion,  appeared  before  the  Su 
preme  Court  of  Massachusetts,  in  the  case  of  Sarah  C. 
Roberts  vs.  The  City  of  Boston.  The  object  of  this 
suit  was,  to  have  some  decision  of  a  Court  of  Final 
Appeal,  which  should  determine  the  civil  rights  of  the 
Colored  people  of  the  State. 

This  was  the  most  powerful  and  exhaustive  argument 
in  behalf  of  the  equality  of  every  human  being  before 
the  Law  of  Equity,  which  is  the  law  of  nature,  and  the 
law  of  God,  that  had  then  been  pronounced,  and  it  has 
never  been  equalled.  It  settled  the  question  in  Massa- 


76  HIS   DEMOCRATIC   CHRISTIAN   SOUL. 

chusetts,    as    it    has    since    been    virtually    established 
throughout  the  country.     Even  Mr.  Sumner  never  was 
obliged   to   elucidate   the   subject  again.     It  constituted 
the  first  great  charter  ever  distinctly  drawn  up  in  favor 
of  the  equal   right  of  the  Colored   people  of  the  United 
States  to   education   and   the    corresponding  privileges 
that  grow  out  of  it,  with  all  other  citizens.     The  argu 
ment  in  Equity  stands  upon  the  eternal  basis  of  justice. 
No  reply  has  ever  been  attempted  against  it  as  an  argu 
ment  in  Law  ;  and  wherever  its  principles  come  in  con 
flict  with  municipal  statutes,  those  statutes  are  arbitrary, 
and   on   appeal   to   Courts  of  Final   Jurisdiction,  will,  in 
every  free  country,  be  overthrown.     It  will  be  seen,  in 
Mr.  Sumner's  subsequent  career,  how  fully  he  conformed 
his   life   and   official  acts   to  the  high   standard  he  had 
raised.     He  carried  out  every  one  of  those  principles  to 
their  logical   conclusion,    never   deviating,    even   in   the 
smallest  thing,  from  the  courtesies  which  they  implied. 
He   lived   a  large   and   generous   life  ;  he  moved  in  the 
best  society,  at  home  and  abroad :   his  companions  were 
the  most  illustrious  men  living.      But  in  no  instance — so 
genuinely  democratic,  and  so  purely  Christian  was  his 
soul, — did  he   ever   give   the   slightest    countenance   to 
that  principle  of  unjust  Caste  which,  in  this  argument, 
he  so   mercilessly  condemned.      In  this  respect,  he  has 
probably  had  no  equal  among  his  countrymen.      His  ex 
ample  more  perfectly  illustrated  the  principles  he  advo 
cated  than  that  of  any  other  man  ;  and  he  certainly  had 
a  higher  and  broader  field  for  their  exemplification  than 
almost   any  other    public    character    of   his    times   was 
favored  with. 

Considering  the  time  when  this  argument  was  made— 
the  heavy  structure  of  Southern   slavery  still  unshaken 


OSTRACISM  OF  THE  COLORED  RACE.          77 

— the  dark  cloud  of  prejudice  against  the  African  race 
hanging  still  undispelled  over  the  whole  North — the  race 
itself,  without  exception,  ostracised  from  the  pale  of 
Northern  charity, — from  the  precincts  of  Northern  justice, 
—from  the  sacred  amenities  of  Northern  homes, — from 
the  priceless  advantages  of  Northern  education, — exiled 
from  every  scene  of  social  amusement  and  culture,— 
shut  out  from  theatres,  from  lecture-rooms,  from  univer 
sities,  from  all  schools  of  higher  education — excluded 
from  the  learned  professions — condemned  everywhere  to 
the  most  menial  and  degrading  offices, — nowhere  allow 
ed  to  enter  the  charmed  circle  of  a  common  brotherhood 
of  a  universal  humanity — banished  absolutely  from  all 
the  sunlight  of  civilization,  and  all  the  sympathies  of 
earth — and  spurned  from  every  covert  of  refuge  except 
the  bosom  of  Almighty  God  !  Such  was  the  condition 
of  this  doomed  race — such  was  the  defender  they  found 
in  Charles  Sumner,  and  such  the  argument  he  delivered 
before  the  Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts. 

It  reads  now, — except  to  the  young,  who  were 
fortunate  enough  to  be  born  in  better  days  of  the  Re 
public,  where  they  have  escaped  much  of  the  contami 
nation  of  that  spirit  of  Caste  that  so  deeply  clouded  our 
young  days, — like  a  thrice-told  tale.  It  seems  but  a 
tame  enunciation  of  axioms  no  longer  disputed.  Ah  ! 
thank  God,  there  is  some  truth  in  this.  But  let  the 
young  go  back,  if  it  be  to  gain  but  a  faint  impression  of 
the  hard  road  the  colored  people  have  had  to  tread  in 
reaching  this  better  day ;  and  they  may  half  conceive 
how  many  a  wounded  spirit,  like  Charles  Sumner's,  bled 
in  secret  sorrow,  with  hearts  grown  sore  in  waiting  for 
the  emancipation  of  an  enslaved  race.  Then  will  they 
cease  to  wonder  that  to  their  salvation  the  great  Senator 


78         TRIAL  BEFORE  THE  SUPREME  COURT. 

so  unreservedly  dedicated  his  life.  Then  will  they  learn 
why  his  name  will  be  mentioned  with  veneration  by  their 
latest  posterity — why  he  is  to  them,  even  now,  the  best 
beloved  name  in  all  history. 

He  opened  his  argument  by  asking  the  Court :  "  Can 
any  discrimination  on  account  of  color,  or  race,  be  made, 
under  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  Massachusetts, 
among  the  children  entitled  to  the  benefits  of  our  Public 
Schools  ?  This  is  the  question  which  the  Court  is  now 
to  hear,  to  consider,  and  to  decide." 

There  had  been  a  long  controversy  on  the  subject, 
and  a  great  deal  of  angry  debate  had,  for  five  years,  been 
witnessed  in  the  School  Committee.  The  controversy 
had  been  heated  and  virulent.  It  was  now  to  be  deter 
mined  for  the  first  time  before  a  judicial  tribunal,  in  an 
action  by  a  colored  child,  only  five  years  old,  who,  by  her 
next  friend,  sued  the  City  of  Boston  for  damages,  on  ac 
count  of  a  refusal  to  receive  her  into  one  of  the  Public 
Schools. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  imagine  any  case  which  could  appeal  more 
strongly  to  your  best  judgment,  whether  you  regard  the  parties  or  the 
subject.  On  the  one  side  is  the  city  of  Boston,  strong  in  its  wealth,  in 
its  influence,  in  its  character  ;  on  the  other  side  is  a  little  child,  of  a 
degraded  color,  of  humble  parents,  still  within  the  period  of  natural  in 
fancy,  but  strong  from  her  very  weakness,  and  from  the  irrepressible 
sympathies  of  good  men,  which,  by  a  divine  compensation,  come  to 
succor  the  weak.  This  little  child  asks  at  your  hands  her  personal 
rights.  So  doing,  she  calls  upon  you  to  decide  a  question  which  con 
cerns  the  personal  rights  of  other  colored  children ;  which  concerns  the 
Constitution  and  Laws  of  the  Commonwealth  ;  which  concerns  that 
peculiar  institution  of  New  England,  the  Common  Schools ;  which  con 
cerns  the  fundamental  principles  of  human  rights  ;  which  concerns  the 
Christian  character  of  this  community.  Such  parties,  and  such  inte 
rests,  so  grand  and  various,  may  justly  challenge  your  most  earnest 
attention. 


ALL   MEN   EQUAL   BEFORE   THE   LAW.  79 

The  great  principle  involved  in  this  case,  I  shall  first  exhibit  in  the 
Constitution  of  Massachusetts,  next  in  the  legislation,  and  then  in  the 
judicial  decisions.  I  shall  then  consider  the  special  circumstances  of 
this  case,  and  show  the  violation  of  the  Constitution  and  Laws,  by  the 
School  Committee  of  Boston — answering,  before  I  close,  some  of  the 
grounds  on  which  their  conduct  has  been  vindicated. 

I.  I  begin  with  the  principle,  that,  according  to  the  spirit  of  Ameri 
can  institutions,  and  especially  of  the  Constitution  of  Massachusetts, 
all  me?t,  without  distinction  of  color  or  race,  are  equal  before  the  law. 

I  might,  perhaps,  leave  this  proposition  without  one  word  of  com 
ment.  The  Equality  of  men  will  not  be  directly  denied  on  this  occa 
sion.  But  that  we  may  better  appreciate  its  character  and  its  limita 
tions,  let  me  develop  with  some  care  the  origin  and  growth  of  this 
sentiment,  until  it  finally  ripened  into  a  formula  of  civil  and  political  right. 

The  sentiment  of  Equality  among  men  was  early  cherished  by  gener 
ous  souls.  It  showed  itself  in  the  dreams  of  ancient  philosophy.  It 
was  declared  by  Seneca ;  when  writing  to  a  friend  a  letter  of  consola 
tion  on  death,  he  said,  Prima  enim  pars  Equitatis  est  Equalitas. 
(Epist.  30.)  The  first  part  of  Equity  is  Equality.  But  it  was  enun 
ciated  with  persuasive  force  in  the  truths  of  the  Christian  Religion. 
Here  we  learn  that  God  is  no  respecter  of  persons  ;  that  he  is  the  father 
of  all ;  and  that  we  are  all  his  children,  and  brethren  to  each  other. 
When  the  Saviour  taught  the  Lord's  prayer,  he  taught  the  sublime  doc 
trine  of  the  Brotherhood  of  Mankind,  infolding  the  Equality  of  men. 

Slowly  did  this  sentiment  enter  the  State.  The  whole  constitution 
of  government  in  modern  times  was  inconsistent  with  it.  An  hereditary 
monarchy,  an  order  of  nobility,  and  the  complex  ranks  of  superiors 
and  inferiors  established  by  the  feudal  system,  all  declared,  not  the 
Equality,  but  the  inequality  of  men,  and  they  all  conspired  to  perpetu 
ate  this  inequality.  Every  infant  of  royal  blood,  every  noble,  every 
vassal,  was  a  present  example,  that,  whatever  might  be  the  truths  of 
religion,  or  the  sentiments  of  the  heart,  men  living  under  these  institu 
tions  were  not  born  equal. 

The  boldest  political  reformers  of  early  times  did  not  venture  to 
proclaim  this  truth ;  nor  did  they  truly  perceive  it.  Cromwell  be 
headed  his  king,  but  caused  the  supreme  power  to  be  secured  in  heredi 
tary  succession  to  his  eldest  son.  It  was  left  to  John  Milton,  in  poetic 
vision,  to  be  entranced — 

With  fair  Equality,  fraternal  state. 
Sidney,  who  perished  a  martyr  to  liberal  sentiments,  drew  his  inspira- 


80  THE   ENCYCLOPEDIE — D'ALEMBERT— DIDEROT. 

tion  from  the  classic,  and  not  from  the  Christian  fountains.  The  exam 
ples  of  Greece  and  Rome  fed  his  soul.  The  Revolution  of  1688, 
partly  by  force}  and  partly  by  the  popular  voice,  brought  a  foreigner  to 
the  crown  of  Great  Britain,  and  according  to  the  boast  of  loyal  English 
men,  the  establishment  of  Freedom  throughout  the  land.  But  the  Bill 
of  Rights  did  not  declare,  nor  did  the  genius  of  Somers  or  Maynard 
conceive  the  political  axiom,  that  all  men  are  born  equal.  It  may  find 
acceptance  in  our  day  from  individuals  in  England  ;  but  it  is  disowned 
by  English  institutions. 

It  is  to  France  that  we  must  pass  for  the  earliest  development  of  this 
idea,  for  its  amplest  illustration,  and  for  its  most  complete,  accurate, 
and  logical  expression.  In  the  middle  of  the  last  century  appeared  the 
renowned  Encyclopedic^  edited  by  D'Alembert  and  Diderot.  This  re 
markable  production,  where  science,  religion,  and  government  were  all 
discussed  with  a  revolutionary  freedom,  contains  an  article  on  Equality, 
which  was  published  in  1755.  Here  we  find  the  boldest  expression  that 
had  then  been  given  to  this  sentiment.  "  Natural  Equality,"  says  the 
Encyclopedia,  "is  that  which  exists  between  all  men  by  the  constitution 
of  their  nature  only.  This  Equality  is  the  principle  and  the  foundation  of 
liberty.  Natural  or  moral  equality  is  then  founded  upon  the  constitu 
tion  of  human  nature,  common  to  all  men,  who  are  born,  grow,  sub 
sist,  and  die  in  the  same  manner.  Since  human  nature  finds  itself  the 
same  in  all  men,  it  is  clear,  that,  according  to  nature's  law,  each  ought 
to  esteem  and  treat  the  others  as  beings  who  are  naturally  equal  to 
himself;  that  is  to  say,  who  are  men  as  well  as  himself." 

When  we  consider  the  period  at  which  this  article  was  written,  we 
shall  be  astonished  less  by  its  incompleteness  and  vagueness,  than  by 
its  bravery  and  generosity.  The  dissolute  despotism  of  Louis  XV. 
overshadowed  France.  Selfish  nobles  and  fawning  courtiers  filled  the 
royal  antechambers.  The  councils  of  Government  were  controlled  by 
royal  mistresses.  Only  a  few  years  before,  in  1751,  the  King  had 
founded,  in  defiance  of  the  principles  of  Equality, — but  in  entire  har 
mony  with  the  conduct  of  the  School  Committee  in  Boston — a  military 
school,  for  nobles  only,  carrying  into  education  the  distinction  of  Caste. 
At  such  a  period  the  Encyclopedia  did  well  in  uttering  such  important 
and  effective  truth.  The  sentiment  of  Equality  was  here  fully  declared. 
Nor  should  we  be  disappointed,  that,  at  this  early  day,  even  the  boldest 
philosophers  did  not  adequately  perceive,  or  if  they  perceived,  did  not 
dare  to  utter,  our  axiom  of  liberty,  that  all  men  are  born  equal,  in  civil 
and  political  rights. 


ORIGIN   OF   EQUALITY   AMONG   MEN.  8 1 

He  pays  a  touching  tribute  to  Jean  Jacques  Rousseau 

—that  solitary  person,  poor,  of  humble  extraction,  born 

in  Switzerland,  of  irregular  education  and  life,  enjoying 

a  temporary  home  in  France,  a  man  of  audacious  genius, 

who  set  at  naught  the  received  opinions  of  mankind  ! 

His  earliest  appearance  before  the  public  was  by  an  eccentric  Essay 
on  the  Origin  of  Inequality  among  Men,  in  which  he  sustained  the  irra 
tional  paradox,  that  men  are  happier  in  a  state  of  nature  than  under  the 
laws  of  civilization.  This  was  followed  by  a  later  work,  the  Social  Con 
tract.  In  both  of  these  productions,  the  sentiment  of  Equality  was 
invoked  against  many  of  the  abuses  of  society,  and  language  was 
employed  going  far  beyond  Equality  in  Civil  and  Political  Rights.  The 
conspicuous  position,  since  awarded  to  the  speculations  of  Rousseau, 
and  the  influence  they  have  exerted  in  diffusing  this  sentiment,  make  it 
proper  to  refer  to  them  on  this  occasion  ;  but  the  absence  of  precision 
in  his  propositions  renders  him  an  uncertain  guide. 

He  next  seizes  hold  of  the  French  Revolution,  which 
he  finely  calls    "  that  great  movement   for  enfranchise 
ment  ;  "  it  was  the  expression  of  this  same  sentiment- 
There  it  received  a  distinct  and  authoritative  annuncia 
tion;  for,  in  the  successive  Constitutions  adopted  amidst 
the  throes  of  those  bloody  struggles,  the  Equality  of  men 
was  always  proclaimed.     In  this  sweeping  wave  went 
away  Nobles,  and  Kings,  and  all  distinctions  of  birth— 
they  could  not  withstand  so  mighty  and   triumphant  a. 
truth. 

The  Constitution  of  1791  declares  in  its  first  article  as  follows  :  "  Men 
are  born  and  continue  free  and  equal  in  their  rights"  In  its  sixth  ar 
ticle  it  says  :  "The  law  is  the  expression  of  the  general  will.  It  ought 
to  be  the  same  for  all,  whether  it  protects  or  punishes.  All  citizens  be 
ing  equal  in  its  eyes,  are  equally  admissible  to  all  dignities,  places,  and 
public  employments  according  to  their  capacity,  and  without  other  dis 
tinction  than  their  virtues  and  talents"  At  the  close  of  the  Declaration 
of  Rights  there  is  this  further  explanation  of  it  :  "  The  National  Assem- 


82  CONDORCET'S  DECLARATION. 

bly,  wishing  to  establish  the  French  Constitution  on  principles  which  it 
has  just  acknowledged  and  declared,  abolishes  irrevocably  the  institutions 
which  bounded  liberty  and  equality  of  rights.  There  is  no  longer,  neither 
nobility,  nor  peerage,  nor  hereditary  distinctions,  nor  distinction  of  order, 
nor  feudal  rule,  nor  patrimonial  justices,  nor  any  titles,  denominations 
and  prerogatives,  which  were  thence  derived,  nor  any  order  of  chivalry, 
nor  any  corporations  or  decorations,  for  which  proofs  of  nobility  are  re 
quired,  or  which  supposed  distinctions  of  birth,  nor  any  other  superiority 
than  that  of  public  functionaries  in  discharge  of  their  functions.  *  *  * 
There  is  no  longer,  for  any  part  of  the  nation,  nor  for  any  individual, 
any  privilege  or  exception  to  the  law,  common  to  all  Frenchmen."  (Moni- 
'teur,  1791,  No.  259.) 

The  Declaration  of  Rights  of  Condorcet — Feb.  15, 
1793 — contained  fresh  inculcations  of  the  Equality  of 
men,  Article  8th  saying:  "  The  Law  ought  to  be  equal  for 
all" — "  Instruction  is  the  need  of  all,  and  society  owes 
it  equally  to  all  its  members." 

'The  natural  and  imprescriptible  rights  of  men  are  "  Equality,  liberty, 
•safety,  property."  And  in  the  next  article  it  shows  what  is  meant  by 
Equality.  It  says,  "All  men  are  equal  by  nature,  and  before  the  law" 
•  (Maniteur,  1793,  No.  178.)  Here  we  first  meet  this  form  of  definition. 
.At  a  Later  day,  after  France  had  passed  through  an  unprecedented 
series  of  political  vicissitudes,  in  some  of  which  the  rights  of  Equality 
had  been  trampled  under  foot,  when,  at  the  revolution  of  1830.  Louis 
.Philippe  was  called  to  a"  throne  surrounded  by  republican  institutions," 
the  charter  then  promulgated  repeated  this  phrase.  In  its  first  article 
it.  declared,  "that  Frenchmen  are  equal  before  the  law,  whatever  may 
may  be  their  titles  or  ranks." 

While  recognizing  this  peculiar  enunciation  of  the  Equality  of  men, 
as. more  specific  and  satisfactory  than  the  naked  statement  that  all  men 
are  borne  equal,  it  is  impossible  not  to  be  reminded  that  this  form  of 
speech  finds  its  prototype  in  the  ancient  Greek  language.  In  the  his 
tory  of  Herodotus,  we  are  told  that  "the  government  of  the  many  has 
the  most  beautiful  name  of  iVovojuu'a " — or  Equality  before  the  law. 
(Book  3,  §  80.)  Thus  this  remarkable  language,  by  its  comprehensive 
ness  and  flexibility,  in  an  age  when  Equality  before  the  law  was  practi- 
.caUy  unknown,  nevertheless  supplied  a  single  word,  which  is  not  to  be 


DECLARATIONS   OF   RIGHTS   IN   FRANCE.  83 

found  in  modern  tongues,  to  express  an  idea  which  has  been  practically 
recognized  only  in  modern  times.  Such  a  word  in  our  own  language, 
as  a  substitute  for  Equality,  might  have  superseded  some  of  the  criticism 
to  which  this  political  doctrine  has  been  exposed. 

After  this  review,  the  way  is  now  prepared  to  consider  the  nature  of 
Equality,  as  secured  by  the  Constitution  of  Massachusetts.  The  De 
claration  of  Independence,  which  was  put  forth  after  the  French  Ency 
clopedia,  and  the  political  writings  of  Rousseau,  places  among  self- 
evident  truths  this  proposition, — "  That  all  men  are  created  equal,  and 
that  they  are  endowed  by  the  Creator  with  certain  unalienable  rights  ; 
that  among  these  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness."  The 
Constitution  of  Massachusetts  repeats  the  same  idea  in  a  different  form. 
In  the  first  article  it  says  :  "  All  men  are  born  free  and  equal,  and  have 
certain  natural,  essential  and  unalienable  rights,  among  which  may  be 
reckoned  the  right  of  enjoying  and  defending  their  lives  and  liberties." 
The  sixth  section  further  explains  the  doctrine  of  Equality.  It  says  : 
"  No  man,  nor  corporation,  or  association  of  men,  have  aity  other  title 
to  obtain  advantages,  or  particular  and  exclusive  privileges,  distinct  from 
those  of  the  community,  than  what  arises  from  the  consideration  of  ser~ 
vices  rendered  to  the  public ;  and  this  title  being  in  nature  neither 
hereditary,  nor  transmissible  to  children,  or  descendants,  or  relations 
by  blood,  the  idea  of  a  man  being  born  a  magistrate,  lawgiver,  or  judge, 
is  absurd  and  unnatural."  The  language  here  employed,  in  its  natural 
signification,  condemns  every  form  of  inequality,  in  civil  and  political 
institutions. 

Though  these  declarations  preceded,  in  point  of  time,  the  ampler  de 
clarations  of  Erance,  they  may,  if  necessary,  be  construed  in  the  light 
of  the  latter.  It  is  evident  that  they  aim  to  declare  substantially  the 
same  things.  They  are  declarations  of  Rights,  and  the  language  em 
ployed,  though  general  in  its  character,  is  obviously  to  be  restrained  to 
those  matters  which  are  within  the  design  and  sphere  of  a  declaration 
of  Rights.  It  is  a  childish  sophism  to  adduce  in  argument  against  them 
the  physical  or  mental  inequalities  by  which  men  are  characterized. 

It  is  a  palpable  truth,  that  men  are  not  born  equal  in  physical  strength, 
or  in  mental  capacities  ;  in  beauty  of  form  or  health  of  body.  Diversity 
or  inequality,  in  these  respects,  is  the  law  of  creation.  From  this  dif 
ference  springs  divine  harmony.  But  this  inequality  is  in  no  particular 
inconsistent  with  a  complete  civil  and  political  equality. 

The  equality  declared  by  our  fathers  in  1776,  and  made  the  funda 
mental  law  of  Massachusetts  in  1780,  was  Equality  before  the  law. 


84  RIGHTS   OF   ALL   TO   SCHOOLS. 

Its  object  was  to  efface  all  political  or  civil  distinctions,  and  to  abolish 
all  institutions  founded  upon  birth.  "  All  men  are  created  equal,"  says 
the  Declaration  of  Independence.  "  All  men  are  born  free  and  equal," 
says  the  Massachusetts  Bill  of  Rights.  These  are  not  vain  words. 
Within  the  sphere  of  their  influence  no  person  can  be  created,  no  per 
son  can  be  born,  with  civil  or  political  privileges,  not  enjoyed  equally 
by  all  his  fellow-citizens  ;  nor  can  any  institution  be  established  recog 
nizing  any  distinctions  of  birth.  Here  is  the  Great  Charter  of  every 
human  being  drawing  his  vital  breath  upon  this  soil,  whatever  may 
be  his  condition,  and  whoever  may  be  his  parents.  He  may  be  poor, 
weak,  humble,  black — he  may  be  of  Caucasian,  of  Jewish,  of  Indian, 
or  of  Ethiopian  race — he  may  be  of  French,  of  German,  of  English,  of 
Irish  extraction — but  before  the  Constitution  of  Massachusetts  all  these 
distinctions  disappear.  He  is  not  poor,  or  weak,  or  humble,  or  black — 
nor  Caucasian,  nor  Jew,  nor  Indian,  nor  Ethiopian — nor  French,  nor 
German,  nor  English,  nor  Irish  ;  he  is  a  MAN, — the  equal  of  all  his 
fellow-men.  He  is  one  of  the  children  of  the  State,  which,  like  an  im 
partial  parent,  regards  all  its  offspring  with  an  equal  care.  To  some 
it  may  justly  allot  higher  duties,  according  to  their  higher  capacities,  but 
it  welcomes  all  to  its  equal,  hospitable  board.  The  State,  imitating 
the  divine  justice,  is  no  respecter  of  persons. 

II.  I  now  pass  to  the  second  stage  of  this  argument,  and  ask  atten 
tion  to  a  further  proposition.  The  Legislature  of  Massachusetts,  in 
entire  harmony  with  the  Constitution,  has  made  no  discrimination  of 
color  or  race,  in  the  establishment  of  Public  Schools. 

If  such  discrimination  were  made  by  the  Laws,  they  would  be  uncon 
stitutional  and  void.  But  the  legislature  of  Massachusetts  has  been 
too  just  and  generous,  too  mindful  of  the  Bill  of  Rights,  to  establish 
any  such  privilege  of  birth.  The  language  of  the  statutes  is  general, 
and  applies  equally  to  all  children,  of  whatever  color  or  race. 

The  provisions  of  the  law  regulating  this  subject  are  entitled,  Of  the 
Public  Schools.  (Revised  Statutes,  ch.  23.) 

The  first  section  provides,  that  in  "  Every  town  containing  fifty  fami 
lies,  or  householders,  there  shall  be  kept  in  each  year,  at  the  charge  of 
the  town,  by  a  teacher  or  teachers  of  competent  ability  and  good 
morals,  one  school  for  the  instruction  of  children  in  Orthography,  Read 
ing,  Writing,  English  Grammar,  Geography,  Arithmetic  and  Good  Be 
havior,  for  the  term  of  six  months,  or  two  or  more  such  schools  for 
terms  of  time  that  shall  together  be  equivalent  to  six  months."  The 
2d,  3d,  and  4th  sections  provide  for  the  number  of  such  schools  to  be 


COURTS   OF  MASSACHUSETTS.  85 

kept  in  other  towns  having  more  than  five  hundred  inhabitants.  The 
language  here  employed  does  not  recognize  any  discrimination  of  color 
or  race.  Thus  in  every  town,  whether  there  be  one  or  more  schools, 
they  are  all  to  be  "  schools  for  the  instruction  of  children"  generally — 
not  children  of  any  particular  class,  or  color,  or  race,  but  children, — 
meaning  the  children  of  the  town  where  the  schools  are. 

The  5th  and  6th  sections  provide  for  the  establishment,  in  certain 
cases,  of  a  school,  in  which  additional  studies  are  to  be  pursued, 
"which  shall  be  kept  for  the  benefit  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  town." 
Here  the  language  not  only  does  not  recognize  any  discrimination 
among  the  children,  but  seems  directly  to  exclude  it. 

In  conformity  with  these  sections  is  the  peculiar  phraseology  of  the 
memorable  law  of  the  Colonies  in  1647,  founding  Public  Schools,  "to 
the  end  that  learning  be  not  buried  in  the  graves  of  our  forefathers." 
This  law  obliged  towns  having  fifty  families  "forthwith  to  appoint  one" 
within  their  limits  "  to  teach  all  such  children  as  shall  resort  to  him,  to 
write  and  read."  (Ancient  Charters,  186.) 

III.  The  Courts  of  Massachusetts  have  never  recognized  any  dis 
crimination,  founded  on  color  or  race,  in  the  administration  of  the 
Public  Schools  ;  but  have  recognized  the  equal  rights  of  all  the  inhabi 
tants. 

There  are  a  few  decisions  only  of  our  Court  bearing  on  this  subject, 
but  they  all  breathe  one  spirit.  The  sentiment  of  Equality  animates 
them.  In  the  case  of  Commonwealth  v.  Davis  (6  Mass.  R.  146),  while 
declaring  the  equal  rights  of  all  the  inhabitants,  both  in  the  grammar 
and  district  schools,  the  Court  said:  "The  schools  required  by  the 
statute  are  to  be  maintained  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole  town,  as  it  is 
the  wise  policy  of  the  law  to  give  all  the  inhabitants  equal  privileges  for 
the  education  of  their  children  in  the  Public  Schools.  Nor  is  it  in  the 
power  of  the  majority  to  deprive  the  minority  of  this  privilege.  *  *  *  * 
Every  inhabitant  of  the  town  has  a  right  to  participate  in  the  benefits 
of  both  descriptions  of  schools,  and  it  is  not  competent  for  a  town  to 
establish  a  grammar  school  for  the  benefit  of  one  part  of  the  town  to 
the  exclusion  of  the  other,  although  the  money  raised  for  the  support 
of  schools  may  be  in  other  respects  fairly  apportioned." 

In  the  case  of  Withington  v.  Eveleth  (7  Pick.  106),  the  Court  said, 
they  "were  all  satisfied  that  the  power  given  to  towns  to  determine  and 
define  the  limits  of  school  districts,  can  be  executed  only  by  a  geogra 
phical  division  of  the  town  for  that  purpose."  A  limitation  of  the  dis. 
trict,  which  was  merely  personal,  was  held  invalid.  This  same  principle 


86     EXCLUSION  OF  THE  COLORED  FROM  SCHOOLS. 

was  again  recognized  in  Perry  v.  Doe  (12  Pick.  R.  213),  where  the 
Court  s,''y  :  "Towns,  in  executing  the  power  to  form  school  districts, 
are  bound  so  to  do  it  as  to  include  every  inhabitant  in  some  of  the  dis 
tricts.  They  cannot  lawfully  omit  any,  and  thus  deprive  them  of  the 
benefits  of  our  invaluable  system  of  free  schools" 

IV.  The  exclusion  of  colored  children  from  the  Public  Schools,  open 
to  white  children,  is  a  source  of  practical  inconvenience  to  them  and  their 
parents,  to  which  white  persons  are  not  exposed,  and  is,  therefore,  a  vio 
lation  of  Equality.  The  black  and  the  w/iu'e  are  not  equal  before  the  law. 

In  this  rule — without  the  exception — is  seen  a  part  of  the  beauty  of 
our  Public  School  system.  It  is  the  boast  of  England,  that  justice, 
through  the  multitude  of  courts,  is  brought  to  every  man's  door.  It 
may  also  be  the  boast  of  our  Public  School  system,  that  education  in 
Boston,  through  the  multitude  of  schools,  is  brought  to  every  white 
man's  door.  But  it  is  not  brought  to  every  black  man's  door.  He  is 
obliged  to  go  for  it — to  travel  for  it — often  a  great  distance.  Surely 
this  is  not  Equality  before  the  law. 


Mr.  Sumner  showed  that  the  inconvenience  arising 
from  the  exclusion  of  colored  children  seriously  affected 
the  comfort  and  condition  of  the  African  race  in  Boston ; 
that  many  colored  parents,  anxious  to  be  near  the  only 
two  schools  open  to  their  children,  were  compelled  to 
gather  in  those  neighborhoods,  as  people  in  Eastern 
countries  come  from  a  distance  to  rest  near  a  fountain 
or  a  well. 

This  is  the  conduct  of  a  colored  parent.  He  is  well  deserving  of 
honor  for  his  generous  efforts  for  his  children.  As  they  grow  in  knowl 
edge,  they  will  rise  and  call  him  blessed ;  but  at  the  same  time  they 
will  brand  as  accursed  the  arbitrary  discrimination  of  color,  in  the  Pub 
lic  Schools  of  Boston,  which  rendered  it  necessary  for  their  father,  out 
of  his  small  means,  to  make  such  sacrifices  for  their  education. 

Such  a  grievance,  even  independent  of  any  stigma  from  color,  calls 
for  redress.  It  is  an  inequality  which  the  Constitution  and  Laws  of 
Massachusetts  repudiate.  But  it  is  not  on  the  ground  of  inconvenience 
only  that  it  is  odious.  And  this  brings  me  to  the  next  point. 


COLOR--RACE— CASTE.  87 

He  next  takes  up  Caste,  for  which  we  must  allow 
liberal  space,  since  it  makes  so  large  a  portion  of  the 
foundation  of  all  human  injustice. 

V.  The  separation  of  children  in  the  Public  Schools  of  Boston,  on 
account  of  color  or  race,  is 'in  the  nature  of  Caste,  and,  on  this  account, 
is  a  violation  of  Equality. 

The  facts  in  this  case  show  expressly  that  the  child  was  excluded 
from  the  school  nearest  to  her  dwelling,  the  number  in  the  school  at 
the  time  warranting  her  admission,  "  on  the  sole  ground  of  color." 
The  first  Majority  Report  presented  to  the  School  Committee,  to  which 
reference  is  made  in  the  statement  of  facts,  gives,  with  more  fulness, 
the  grounds  of  this  discrimination,  saying,  "  It  is  one  of  races,  not  of 
color,  merely.  The  distinction  is  one  which  the  Almighty  has  seen  fit 
to  establish,  and  it  is  founded  deep  in  the  physical,  mental,  and  moral 
natures  of  the  two  races.  No  legislation,  no  social  customs,  can  efface 
this  distinction."  Words  more  apt  than  these  to  describe  the  heathen 
ish  relation  of  Caste,  could  not  be  chosen. 

This  will  be  apparent  from  the  very  definition  of  Caste.  This  term 
is  borrowed  from  the  Portuguese  word  casta,  which  signifies  family, 
breed,  race.  It  has  become  generally  used  to  designate  any  hereditary 
distinction,  particularly  of  race.  In  India  it  is  most  often  applied  ; 
and  it  is  there  that  we  must  go  in  order  to  understand  its  full  force.  A 
recent  English  writer  on  the  subject  says,  that  it  is  "not  only  a  distinc 
tion  by  birth,  but  is  founded  on  the  doctrine  of  an  essentially  distinct 
origin  of  the  different  races,  which  are  thus  *  unalterably  separated." 
(Roberts  on  Caste,  p.  134.)  This  is  the  very  ground  of  the  Boston 
School  Committee. 

But  this  word  is  not  now  applied  for  the  first  time  to  the  distinction 
between  the  white  and  black  races.  Alexander  von  Humboldt,  in 
speaking  of  the  negroes  in  Mexico,  has  characterized  them  as  a  Caste, 
and  a  recent  political  and  juridical  writer  of  France  has  used  the  same 
term  to  denote,  not  only  the  distinctions  in  India,  but  those  of  our  own 
country.  (Charles  Comte,  Traite  de  Legislation,  torn.  4,  pp.  129,  445.) 
In  the  course  of  his  remarks,  he  refers  to  the  exclusion  of  colored  chil 
dren  from  the  Public  Schools,  as  among  "the  humiliating  and  brutal 
distinctions"  by  which  their  caste  is  characterized.  It  is,  then,  on  au 
thority  and  reason,  that  we  apply  this  term  to  the  hereditary  distinction 
on  account  of  color,  which  is  established  in  the  Public  Schools  of 
Boston. 


88         BARBARISM  AND  CRUELTY  OF  CASTE. 

It  is  when  we  see  this  discrimination  in  this  light,  that  we  learn  to  ap 
preciate  its  true  character.  The  Brahmins  and  the  Sudras,  in  India, 
from  generation  to  generation,  were  kept  apart.  If  a  Sudra  presumed 
to  sit  upon  a  Brahmin's  carpet,  he  was  punished  with  banishment. 
With  a  similar  inhumanity  among  us,  the  black  child,  who  goes  to  sit  on 
the  same  benches  at  school  with  the  white  child,  is  banished,  not  from 
the  country,  but  from  the  school.  In  both  cases  it  is  the  triumph 
of  Caste.  But  the  offence  is  greater  with  us,  because,  unlike  the 
Hindoos,  we  acknowledge  that  men  are  born  equal. 

The  Advocate  cites  from  high  authorities,  many  illus 
trations  of  the  cruelty  and  barbarous  character  of  caste, 
as  it  appears  in  India. 

Bishop  Heber,  of  Calcutta,  characterizes  Caste  as  follows  : 

//  is  a  system  which  tends,  more  than  any  else  the  devil  has  yet  invented, 

to  destroy  the  feelings  of  general  benevolence,  and  to  make  nine-tenths  of 

mankind  the  hopeless  slaves  of  the  remainder. 

Bishop  Wilson,  also  of  Calcutta,  the  successor  of  Heber,  says  : — 
The  Gospel  recognizes  no  such  distinctions  as  those  of  castes,  im 
posed  by  a  heathen  usage,  bearing  in  some  respects  a  supposed  religious 
obligation,  condemning  those  in  the  lower  ranks  to  perpetual  abasement, 
placing  an  immovable  barrier  against  all  general  advance  and  improve 
ment  in  society,  cutting  asunder  the  bonds  of  human  fellowship  on  the 
one  hand,  and  preventing  those  of  Christian  love  on  the  other.  Such 
distinctions,  I  say,  the  Gospel  does  not  recognize.  On  the  contrary,  it 
teaches  us  that  God  "  h'ath  made  of  one  blood  all  the  nations  of  men." 

This  is  the  testimony  of  a  native  of  Hindostan,  converted  to  Christianity: 

Caste  is  the  stronghold  of  that  principle  of  pride  which  makes  a  man 
think  of  himself  more  highly  than  he  ought  to  think.  Caste  infuses 
itself  into,  and  forms  the  very  essence  of  pride  itself. 

Another  native  speaks  as  follows  : 

I  therefore  regard  Caste  as  opposed  to  the  main  scope,  principles,  and 
doctrines  of  Christianity;  for,  either  Caste  must  be  admitted  to  be  true 
and  of  divine  authority,  or  Christianity  must  be  so  admitted.  If  you  admit 
Caste  to  be  true,  the  whole  fabric  of  Christianity  must  come  down  ;  for 
the  nature  of  Caste  and  its  associations  destroy  the  first  principles  of 
Christianity.  Caste  makes  distinction  among  creatures  where  God  has 
made  none. 

Disguise  it  as  you  will,  it  is  this  hatefal  ii  stitution.  But  the  words  Caste 
and  Equality  are  contradictory.  They  mutually  exclude  each  other. 


CHANGE   IN   THE   TIMES.  89 

Where  Caste  is,  there  cannot  be  Equality.  Where  Equality  is,  the^e 
cannot  be  Caste.  It  is  unquestionably  true  that  there  is  a  distinction 
between  the  Ethiopian  and  Caucasian  races.  But  this  distinction  can 
furnish  no  ground  for  any  discrimination  before  the  law. 

We  abjure  nobility  of  all  kinds;  but  here  is  a  nobility  of  the  skin. 
We  abjure  all  hereditary  distinctions  ;  but  here  is  an  hereditary  distinc 
tion,  founded  not  on  the  merit  of  the  ancestor,  but  on  his  color.  We 
abjure  all  privileges  derived  from  birth ;  but  here  is  a  privilege  which 
depends  solely  on  the  accident,  whether  an  ancestor  is  black  or  white. 
We  abjure  all  inequality  before  the  law  ;  but  here  is  an  inequality 
which  touches  not  an  individual,  but  a  race.  We  revolt  at  the  relation 
of  Caste  ;  ttut  here  is  a  Caste  which  is  established  under  a  Constitution 
declaring  that  all  men  are  born  equal. 

VI.  The  Committee  of  Boston,  charged  with  the  superintendence  of 
the  Public  Schools,  have  no  power  under  the  Constitution  and  Laws  of 
Massachusetts,  to  make  any  discrimination  on  account  of  color  or 
race,  among  children  in  the  Public  Schools. 

It  has  been  already  seen  that  this  power  is  inconsistent  with  the 
Constitution  and  Laws  of  Massachusetts,  and  with  the  adjudications  of 
the  Supreme  Court.  The  stream  cannot  rise  higher  than  the  fountain- 
head,  and  if  there  be  nothing  in  these  elevated  sources  from  which 
this  power  can  draw  its  sanction,  it  must  be  considered  a  nullity. 

He  shows  still  further  that  the  times  had  changed— 
that  Boston  people  were  not  living"  any  longer  in  an 
age  when  they  could  practise  these  indignities  with 
impunity. 

It  is  clear  that  the  sentiments  of  the  colored  people  have  now 
changed.  The  present  case,  and  the  deep  interest  which  they  manifest 
in  it,  thronging  the  court  to  hang  on  this  discussion,  attest  the  change. 
With  increasing  knowledge,  they  have  learned  to  know  their  rights,  and 
to  feel  the  degradation  to  which  they  have  been  doomed.  Their 
present  effort  is  the  token  of  a  manly  character  which  this  Court  will 
cherish  and  respect.  The  spirit  of  Paul  now  revives  in  them,  even 
as  when  he  said,  "  I  am  a  Roman  citizen." 

But  it  is  said  that  these  separate  schools  are  for  the  mutual  benefit  of 
children  of  both  colors,  and  of  the  Public  Schools.  In  similar  spirit, 
Slavery  is  sometimes  said  to  be  for  the  mutual  benefit  of  master  and 
slave,  and  of  the  country  where  it  exists.  In  the  one  case  there  is  a 


go  THE    GRAND    REVELATION   OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

mistake  as  great  as  in  the  other.  This  is  clear.  Nothing  unjust, 
nothing  ungenerous,  can  be  for  the  benefit  of  any  person,  or  any  thing. 
Short-sighted  mortals  may,  from  some  seeming  selfish  superiority,  or 
from  a  gratified  vanity  of  class,  hope  to  draw  a  permanent  good  ;  but 
even-handed  justice  rebukes  these  efforts,  and  with  certain  power  re 
dresses  the  wrong.  The  whites  themselves  are  injured  by  the  separa 
tion.  Who  can  doubt  this  ?  With  the  law  as  their  monitor,  the)-  are 
taught  to  regard  a  portion  of  the  human  family,  children  of  God,  created 
in  his  image,  co-equals  in  his  love,  as  a  separate  and  degraded  class  ; 
they  are  taught  practically  to  deny  that  grand  revelation  of  Christianity 
— the  Brotherhood  of  Mankind.  Their  hearts,  while  yet  tender  with 
childhood,  are  necessarily  hardened  by  this  conduct,  and  'their  subse 
quent  lives,  perhaps,  bear  enduring  testimony  to  this  legalized  un- 
charitableness.  Nursed  in  the  sentiment  of  Caste,  receiving  it  with 
the  earliest  food  of  knowledge,  they  are  unable  to  eradicate  it  from 
their  natures,  and  then  weakly  and  impiously  charge  upon  their 
Heavenly  Father  the  prejudice  which  they  have  derived  from  an  un 
christian  school,  and  which  they  continue  to  embody  and  perpetuate 
in  their  institutions.  Their  characters  are  debased,  and  they  become 
less  fit  for  the  magnanimous  duties  of  a  good  citizen. 

The  Helots  of  Sparta  were  obliged  to  intoxicate  themselves,  that  they 
might  teach  to  the  children  of  their  masters  the  deformity  of  intemper 
ance.  In  thus  sacrificing  one  class  to  the  other,  both  were  degraded — 
the  imperious  Spartan  and  the  abased  Helot.  But  it  is  with  a  similar 
double-edged  injustice  that  the  School  Committee  of  Boston  have  acted, 
in  sacrificing  the  colored  children  to  the  prejudice  or  fancied  advantage 
of  the  white. 

Who  can  say  that  this  does  not  injure  the  blacks?  Theirs,  in  its 
best  estate,  is  an  unhappy  lot.  Shut  out  by  a  still  lingering  prejudice 
from  many  social  advantages, — a  despised  class, — they  feel  this  pro 
scription  from  the  Public  Schools  as  a  peculiar  brand.  Beyond  this,  it 
.deprives  them  of  those  healthful  animating  influences,  which  would  come 
from  a  participation  in  the  studies  of  their  white  brethren.  It  adds  to 
their  discouragements.  It  widens  their  separation  from  the  rest  of  the 
community,  and  postpones  that  great  day  of  reconciliation  which  is  sure 
to  come. 

The  whole  system  of  Public  Schools  suffers  also.  It  is  a  narrow 
perception  of  their  high  aim,' which  teaches  that  they  are  merely  to 
furnish  to  all  the  scholars  an  equal  amount  in  knowledge,  and  that, 
therefore,  provided  all  be  taught,  it  is  of  little  consequence  where,  and 


BENEFITS   OF  ACQUAINTANCE.  QI 

in  what  company,  it  be  done.  The  law  contemplates  not  only  that 
they  shall  all  be  taught,  but  that  they  shall  be  taught  all  together. 
They  are  not  only  to  receive  equal  quantities  of  knowledge,  but  all  are 
to  receive  it  in  the  same  way.  All  are  to  approach  together  the  same 
common  fountain  ;  nor  can  there  be  any  exclusive  source  for  any  indi 
vidual  or  any  class.  The  school  is  the  little  world  in  which  the  child 
is  trained  for  the  larger  world  of  life.  It  must,  therefore,  cherish  and 
develop  the  virtues  and  the  sympathies  employed  in  the  larger  world. 
And  since,  according  to  our  institutions,  all  classes  meet,  without  dis 
tinction  of  color,  in  the  performance  of  civil  duties,  so  should  they  all 
meet,  without  distinction  of  color,  in  the  school — beginning  there  those 
relations  of  Equality  which  our  Constitution  and  Laws  promise  to  all. 

As  the  State  receives  strength  from  the  unity  and  solidarity  of  its 
citizens,  without  distinction  of  class,  so  the  school  receives  new 
strength  from  the  unity  and  solidarity  of  all  classes  beneath  its  roof. 
In  this  way  the  poor,  the  humble,  the  neglected,  share  not  only 
the  companionship  of  their  more  favored  brethren,  but  enjoy  also  the 
protection  of  their  presence,  in  drawing  towards  the  school  a  more 
watchful  superintendence.  A  degraded  or  neglected  class,  if  left  to 
themselves,  will  become  more  degraded  or  neglected.  To  him  that  hath 
shall  be  given  ;  and  the  world,  true  to  these  words,  turns  from  the  poor 
and  outcast  to  the  rich  and  fortunate.  It  is  the  aim  of  our  system  of 
Public  Schools,  by  the  blending  of  all  classes,  to  draw  upon  the  whole 
school  the  attention  which  is  too  apt  to  be  given  only  to  the  favored 
few,  and  thus  secure  to  the  poor  their  portion  of  the  fruitful  sunshine. 
But  the  colored  children,  placed  apart  in  separate  schools,  are  deprived 
of  this  blessing. 

He  shows  with  great  force  how  the  welfare  of  classes 
in  all  communities,  as  well  as  that  of  individuals,  is 
promoted  by  mutual  acquaintance.  The  French  and 
English  nations,  separated  only  by  a  narrow  channel, 
across  which  they  can  look  upon  each  other's  coasts, 
remained  in  a  state  of  almost  constant  hostilities  for 
hundreds  of  years  ;  but  when  the  new  age  came  on, 
with  steamers  and  increased  travel,  prejudice, — the  child 
of  ignorance, — began  to  give  way  ;  and  as  they  mingled 
more  and  more  together,  they  at  last  became  friends. 


92  EQUALITY   BEFORE   THE   LAW. 

May  it  please  your  Honors  :  Such  are  some  of  the  things  which  it 
has  occurred  to  me  to  say  in  this  important  cause.  I  have  occupied 
much  of  your  time,  but  I  have  not  yet  exhausted  the  topics.  Still, 
which  way  soever  we  turn,  we  are  brought  back  to  one  single  proposi 
tion — the  Equality  of  men  before  the  law.  This  stands  as  the  mighty 
guardian  of  the  rights  of  the  colored  children  in  this  case.  It  is  the 
constant,  ever-present,  tutelary  genius  of  this  Commonwealth,  frown 
ing  upon  every  privilege  of  birth,  upon  every  distinction  of  race,  upon 
every  institution  of  Caste.  You  cannot  slight  it,  or  avoid  it.  You 
cannot  restrain  it.  God  grant  that  you  may  welcome  it.  Do  this,  and 
your  words  will  be  a  "charter  and  freehold  of  rejoicing"  to  a  race 
which,  by  much  suffering,  has  earned  a  title  to  much  regard.  Your 
judgment  will  become  a  sacred  landmark,  not  in  jurisprudence  only, 
but  in  the  history  of  Freedom,  giving  precious  encouragement  to  all 
the  weary  and  heavy-laden  wayfarers  in  this  great  cause.  Massachu 
setts  will  then,  through  you,  have  a  fresh  title  to  regard,  and  be  once 
more,  as  in  times  past,  an  example  to  the  whole  land. 

You  have  already  banished  Slavery  from  this  Commonwealth.  I  call 
upon  you  now  to  obliterate  the  last  of  its  footprints,  and  to  banish  the  last 
of  the  hateful  spirits  in  its  train,  that  can  be  reached  by  this  Court.  The 
law,  interfering  to  prohibit  marriages  between  blacks  and  whites,  has 
been  abolished  by  the  Legislature.  The  railroads,  which,  imitating  the 
Boston  schools,  placed  colored  people  apart  by  themselves,  have  been 
compelled,  under  the  influence  of  an  awakened  public  sentiment,  to 
abandon  this  regulation,  and  to  allow  them  to  mingle  with  other  travellers. 
Only  recently  I  have  read  that  his  Excellency,  the  present  Governor  of 
Massachusetts,  took  his  seat  in  a  train  by  the  side  of  a  negro.  It  is  in  the 
Caste  schools  of  Boston  that  the  prejudice  of  color  has  sought  its  final 
legal  refuge.  It  is  for  you  to  drive  it  forth.  You  do  well  when  3-011 
rebuke  and  correct  individual  offences ;  but  it  is  a  higher  office  for  to 
rebuke  and  correct  a  vicious  institution.  Each  individual  is  limited  in 
his  influence  ;  but  an  institution  has  the  influence  of  numbers  organized 
by  law.  The  charity  of  one  man  may  counteract  or  remedy  the  un- 
charitableness  of  another  ;  but  no  individual  can  counteract  or  remedy 
the  uncharitableness  of  an  established  institution.  Against  it  private 
benevolence  is  powerless.  It  is  a  monster  which  must  be  hunted  down 
by  the  public,  and  by  the  constituted  authorities.  And  such  is  the  in 
stitution  of  Caste  in  the  Public  Schools  of  Boston,  which  now  awaits  its 
just  condemnation  from  a  just  Court. 

The  civilization  of  the  age  joins  in  this  appeal.   It  is  well  known  that  this 


THE   CHRISTIAN   SPIRIT   INVOKED.  93 

prejudice  of  color  is  peculiar  to  our  country.  You  have  not  forgotten 
that  two  youths  of  African  blood  only  recently  gained  the  highest  honors 
in  the  college  at  Paris,  and  dined  on  the  same  day  with  the  King  of 
France,  the  descendant  of  St.  Louis,  at  the  Palace  of  the  Tuileries. 
And  let  me  add,  if  I  may  refer  to  my  own  experience,  that  in  Paris,  I 
have  sat  for  weeks,  at  the  School  of  Law,  on  the  same  benches  with 
colored  persons,  listening,  like  myself,  to  the  learned  lectures  of  Dege- 
rando  and  of  Rossi — the  last  is  the  eminent  minister  who  has  unhappily 
fallen  beneath  the  dagger  of  a  Roman  assassin  ;  nor  do  I  remember 
observing  in  the  throng  of  sensitive  young  men  by  whom  they  were  sur 
rounded,  any  feeling  towards  them  except  of  companionship  and  respect. 
In  Italy,  at  the  Convent  of  Pallazuola,  on  the  shores  of  the  Alban 
Lake,  and  on  the  site  of  the  ancient  Alba  Longa,  I  have  seen,  for  several 
days,  a  native  of  Abyssinia,  only  recently  conducted  from  his  torrid 
home,  and  ignorant  of  the  language  that  was  spoken  about  him,  yet 
mingling  with  the  Franciscan  friars,  whose  guest  and  scholar  he  was,  in 
delightful  and  affectionate  familiarity.  In  these  examples  may  be  dis 
cerned  the  Christian  spirit. 

And,  finally,  this  spirit  I  invoke.  Where  this  prevails,  there  is  neither 
Jew  nor  Gentile,  Greek  nor  barbarian,  bond  nor  free  ;  but  all  are  alike. 
From  this  we  derive  new  and  solemn  assurances  of  the  Equality  of  man 
kind,  as  an  ordinance  of  God.  The  bodies  of  men  may  be  unequal  in 
beauty  or  strength ;  these  mortal  cloaks  of  flesh  may  differ,  as  do  these 
worldly  garments ;  these  intellectual  faculties  may  vary,  as  do  the  op 
portunities  of  action  and  the  advantages  of  position  ;  but  amidst  all  un 
essential  differences  there  is  an  essential  agreement  and  equality. 
Dives  and  Lazarus  were  equal  in  the  sight  of  God.  They  must  be  equal 
in  the  sight  of  all  just  institutions. 

But  this  is  not  all.  The  vaunted  superiority  of  the  white  race  im 
poses  upon  it  corresponding  duties.  The  faculties  with  which  they  are 
endowed,  and  the  advantages  which  they  possess,  are  to  be  exercised 
for  the  good  of  all.  If  the  colored  people  are  ignorant,  degraded,  and 
unhappy,  then  should  they  be  the  especial  objects  of  your  care.  From 
the  abundance  of  your  possessions  you  must  seek  to  remedy  their  lot. 
And  this  Court,  which  is  as  a  parent  to  all  the  unfortunate  children  of  the 
Commonwealth,  will  show  itself  most  truly  parental,  when  it  reaches 
down,  and,  with  the  strong  arm  of  the  law,  elevates,  encourages,  and 
protects  its  colored  fellow-citizens. 


94  WEBSTER'S  ONLY  SUCCESSOR. 

XIII. 

But  these  great  efforts  of  the  private  citizen  were 
drawing  to  a  close.  Mr.  SUMNER  was  soon  to  be  trans 
ferred  to  a  broader  field  of  effort  and  power.  A  radical 
change  had  passed  over  the  public  mind  everywhere, 
especially  in  Massachusetts.  There  the  indignation  that 
had  been  aroused  by  the  passage  of  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Bill  can  hardly  be  understood  at  this  day.  The  vast 
popularity  of  DANIEL  WEBSTER  seemed  to  vanish  in  an 
hour  after  his  speech  of  the  7th  of  March.  Those  words 
with  which  he  opened  that  speech  in  the  Senate — "  I 
find  the  Fugitive  Slave  law  in  the  Constitution,  and  I 
take  no  step  backwards  "•  —had  alienated  from  him  the 
friends  of  a  lifetime,  and  slammed  the  doors  of  old 
Faneuil  Hall  in  his  face.  There  was  but  one  man  in 
Massachusetts  that  could  be  his  successor.  That  man 
was  CHARLES  SUMNER.  But  before  we  give  an  account 
of  his  election,  and  the  unforeseen  circumstances  which 
attended  it,  we  shall  give  some  extracts  from  a  powerful 
speech  he  delivered  at  the  Free-Soil  State  Convention 
in  Boston,  on  the  3d  of  October,  1850,  his  theme  being 
once  more,  OUR  PRESENT  ANTI-SLAVERY  DUTIES. 

The  long  session  of  Congress  had  come  to  an  end ; 
its  members  were  hurrying  to  their  homes  to  give  an  ac 
count  of  their  stewardship.  No  man  at  the  North,  who  had 
voted  for  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  was  ever  to  recover 
his  former  popularity.  Many  of  them  were  to  leave  public 
life  forever :  some  with  the  regrets  and  the  esteem  of 
large  minorities ;  others  with  the  hostility  of  former 
friends,  and  the  contempt  of  whole  communities.  Mr. 
WEBSTER'S  usefulness,  however,  was  by  no  means  over. 
He  was  to  vacate  the  Senate  April  24,  1851,  and  be- 


WEBSTER'S  STATESMANSHIP.  95 

come  Secretary  of  State,  under  Mr.  FILMORE.  His 
management  of  our  foreign  affairs — then  somewhat  com 
plicated — commanded  the  confidence  of  the  country, 
and  the  respect  of  foreign  nations,  which  still  left  a  broad 
field  for  the  exercise  of  his  consummate  abilities  in  the 
public  service.  But  it  was  felt  then,  as  it  was  afterwards 
known,  that  his  course  on  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  had 
been  an  act  of  political  suicide.  On  the  rock  of  Slavery 
the  whig  party  had  gone  to  pieces ;  and  very  few  good 
men  regretted  its  fate.  Like  some  of  the  convicts  of 
a  celebrated  judge,  it  had  survived  its  usefulness,  and 
was  put  out  of  the  way.  The  illustrious  sage  of  Marsh- 
field  had  given  place  to  the  rising  young  statesman  on 
whose  broad  shoulders  Destiny  had  fixed  the  forlorn 
hope,  not  only  of  four  million  slaves,  but  perhaps  of  the 
Republic  of  Washington  itself. 

But  let  us  listen  to  the  last  trumpet-call  to  Freedom 
that  CHARLES  SUMNER  sounded  out  from  the  ranks  of 
the  people,  before  he  went  into  the  National  Councils  to 
lead  the  crusaders  for  the  recovery  of  the  tomb  of  the 
Father  of  his  country  from  the  long  and  deep  disgrace 
which  still  overshadowed  the  soil  of  Mount  Vernon. 

XIV. 

Mr.  SUMNER  opened  his  speech  with  the  words, 
"Watchman,  what  of  the  night?  And  well  may  the 
question  be  asked,"  he  said,  "  for  things  have  occurred, 
and  measures  have  passed  into  laws,  which  fill  the  day 
itself  into  blackness.  And  yet,  there  are  streaks  of  light 
—an  unwonted  dawn — in  the  distant  west,  out  of  which 
a  full-orbed  sun  is  beginning  to  ascend,  rejoicing,  like  a 
stronor  man,  to  run  his  race. 


96  CALIFORNIA   ADMITTED   AS   A   FREE   STATE. 

"  California  had  been  admitted  to  the  Union  with  a 
Constitution  forbidding"  slavery.  A  hateful  institution 
which  thus  far,  without  check,  had  travelled  with  the 
power  of  the  Republic  westward,  was  bidden  to  stop, 
and  a  new  and  rising  State  guarded  from  its  contamina 
tion.  Freedom— in  whose  hands  is  the  divining  rod  of 
magical  power,  pointing  the  way  not  only  to  wealth  un 
told,  but  to  every  possession  of  virtue  and  intelligence— 
whose  presence  is  better  far  than  any  mine — is  now  at 
last  established  in  an  extensive  region  on  the  distant 
Pacific,  between  the  very  parallels  of  latitude  so  long 
claimed  by  slavery  as  its  peculiar  home.  Here  is  a  mo 
ral  and  political  victory :  a  moral  victory  inasmuch  as 
Freedom  has  secured  a  new  foothold  where  to  exert  her 
far-reaching  influence  ;  a  political  victory  also,  inasmuch 
as,  by  the  admission  of  California,  the  free  States  have 
obtained  a  majority  of  votes  in  the  Senate,  and  the  BAL 
ANCE  OF  POWER  between  Freedom  and  Slavery — so  pre 
posterously  claimed  by  the  Slave  States,  in  forgetfulness 
of  the  true  spirit  of  the  Constitution,  and  in  mockery  of 
HUMAN  RIGHTS — has  been  overturned.  May  Free  Cali 
fornia,  and  her  Senators  in  Congress,  never  fail  hereafter, 
amidst  the  trials  before  us,  in  loyalty  to  Freedom !  God 
forbid  that  the  daughter  should  turn  with  ingratitude  or 
neglect  from  the  mother  that  bore  her." 

Congress  had  also  abolished  the  slave-trade  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,  and  banished  from  the  national 
Capital  the  odious  traffic,  thus  affixing  upon  the  trade  in 
human  flesh  everywhere  in  the  broad  domain  of  the  Re 
public,  the  brand  of  Congressional  reprobation.  True, 
Congress  had  not,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Foreign  Slave- 
Trade,  stamped  it  as  piracy,  and  awarded  to  its  perpe 
trators  the  doom  of  pirates ;  but  it  had  condemned  the 


SLAVERY  NOT   PROHIBITED   ELSEWHERE.  97 

trade,  and  gave  to  general  scorn  those  who  partook  of 
it ;  thus  preparing  the  way  for  that  complete  act  of  Abo 
lition  which  was  necessary  to  purge  the  National  Capital 
of  its  still  remaining  curse  and  shame.  It  had  also  abol 
ished  flogging  in  the  Navy,  thus  rebuking  the  lash  wher 
ever  and  by  whomsoever  employed.  These  two  props 
and  stays  of  slavery  had  been  undermined  by  Congres 
sional  legislation.  Without  the  slave-trade  and  the  lash, 
slavery  itself  must  fall  to  the  earth. 

But  other  measures  had  passed,  which  the  speaker 
contemplated  only  with  indignation  and  disgust.  The 
broad  territories  of  New  Mexico  and  Utah,  under  the  ex 
clusive  jurisdiction  of  Congress,  had  been  organized 
without  any  prohibition  of  slavery.  In  laying  the  foun 
dations  there,  Congress  had  omitted  the  great  Ordinances 
of  Freedom,  first  suggested  by  Jefferson,  and  consecra 
ted  by  the  experience  of  the  Northwestern  Territory. 
Moreover,  a  vast  territory,  larger  than  all  New  England, 
had  been  taken  from  New  Mexico,  and  ten  million 
dollars  had  been  given  to  slave-holding  Texas. 

And  still  further,  as  if  to  do  a  deed  which  should  "make  heaven  weep, 
all  earth  amazed,"  this  same  Congress,  in  disregard  of  all  the  cherished 
safeguards  of  Freedom,  has  passed  a  most  cruel,  unchristian,  devilish  law 
to  secure  the  return  into  Slavery  of  those  fortunate  bondmen  who  have 
found  shelter  by  our  firesides.  This  is  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill — a  bill 
which  despoils  the  party  claimed  as  a  slave — whether  he  be  in  reality  a 
slave  or  a  freeman — of  the  sacred  right  of  Trial  by  Jury,  and  commits 
the  question  of  Human  Freedom — the  highest  question  known  by  the 
law — to  the  unaided  judgment  of  a  single  magistrate,  on  ex  parte  evi 
dence  it  may  be,  by  affidavits,  without  the  sanction  of  cross-exami 
nation. 

And  yet  there  are  streaks  of  light — an  unwonted  dawn — in  the  dis 
tant  West,  out  of  which  a  full-orbed  sun  is  beginning  to  ascend,  rejoic 
ing  like  a  strong  man  to  run  his  race.  Video  solem  orientem  in  occi- 
dente.  'By  an  Act  of  the  recent  Congress,  California,  with  a  Constitu- 
7 


98          BALANCE  OF  POWER  OVERTURNED. 

tion  forbidding  Slavery,  adopted  in  the  exercise  of  its  sovereignty  as  a 
State,  has  been  admitted  into  the  Union.  For  a  measure  like  this, 
required  not  only  by  the  simplest  justice,  but  by  the  uniform  practice  of 
the  country,  and  the  constitutional  principles  of  the  slave-holders  them 
selves,  we  may  well  be  ashamed  to  confess  our  gratitude  ;  and  yet  I 
cannot  but  rejoice  in  this  great  good  accomplished.  A  hateful  institu 
tion,  which  thus  far,  without  check,  had  travelled  with  the  power  of  the 
Republic,  westward,  is  bidden  to  stop,  and  a  new  and  rising  State 
guarded  from  its  contamination.  Freedom — in  whose  hands  is  the 
divining  rod  of  magical  power,  pointing  the  way,  not  only  to  wealth  un 
told,  but  to  every  possession  of  virtue  and  intelligence — whose  presence 
is  better  far  than  any  mine  of  gold — is  now  at  last  established  in  an  ex 
tensive  region  on  the  distant  Pacific,  between  the  very  parallels  of  lati 
tude  so  long  claimed  by  Slavery  as  its  peculiar  home. 

Here  is  a  moral  and  political  victory  ;  a  moral  victory,  inasmuch  as 
Freedom  has  secured  a  new  foothold  where  to  exert  her  far-reaching 
influence  ;  a  political  victory  also,  inasmuch  as  by  the  admission  of  Cal 
ifornia,  the  Free  States  have  obtained  a  majority  of  votes  in  the  Senate, 
.and  the  balance  of  'power ;  between  Freedom  and  Slavery — so  preposter 
ously  claimed  by  the  Slave  States,  in  forgetfulness  of  the  true  spirit  of 
-the  Constitution,  and  in  mockery  of  Human  Rights — has  been  over 
turned.  May  free  California,  and  her  Senators  in  Congress,  never  fail 
hereafter,  amidst  the  trials  before  us,  in  loyalty  to  Freedom  !  God  for 
bid  that  the  daughter  should  turn  with  ingratitude  or  neglect  from  the 
.mother  that  bore  her  ! 

Besides  this  Act,  there  are  two  others  of  this  long  session  which  may 
be  regarded  with  satisfaction,  and  which  I  mention  at  once,  before  con 
sidering  the  reverse  of  the  picture.  The  Slave  trade  has  been  abolished 
•in  the  District  of  Columbia.  This  measure,  though  small  in  the  sight 
•of  Justice,  is  most  important.  It  banishes  from  the  National  Capital 
:an  odious  traffic.  But  this  is  its  least  office.  It  practically  affixes  to 
•the  whole  traffic,  wherever  it  exists — not  merely  in  Washington,  within 
•the  immediate  sphere  of  the  legislative  act — but  everywhere  throughout 
the  Slave  States,  whether  at  Richmond,  or  Charleston,  or  New  Orleans, 
the  brand  of  Congressional  reprobation.  Yes!  The  people  of  the 
United  States,  by  the  voice  of  Congress,  have  solemnly  declared  the 
domestic  traffic  in  slaves  to  be  offensive  in  their  sight.  The  nation  has 
judged  this  traffic.  The  nation  has  said  to  it,  "  Get  thee  behind  me, 
Satan."  It  is  true  that  Congress  has  not,  as  in  the  case  of  the  foreign 
-trade,  stamped  it  as  piracy,  and  awarded  to  its  perpetrators  the 


DENIAL   OF  TRIAL  BY  JURY.  99 

doom  of  pirates  ;  but  it  condemns  the  trade,  and  gives  to  general  scorn 
those  who  partake  of  it.  To  this  extent  the  North  may  be  swept  into 
ruthless  captivity ;  and  there  is  no  white  citizen,  born  among  us,  bred 
in  our  schools,  partaking  in  our  affairs,  voting  in  our  elections,  whose 
liberty  is  not  assailed  also.  Without  any  discrimination  of  color,  the 
Bill  surrenders  all,  who  may  be  claimed  as  "  owing  service  or  labor,"  to 
the  same  tyrannical  judgment.  And  mark  once  more  its  heathenism. 
By  unrelenting  provisions  it  visits,  with  bitter  penalties  of  fine  and  im 
prisonment,  the  faithful  men  and  women  who  may  render  to  the  fugi 
tive  that  countenance,  succor,  and  shelter  which  Christianity  expressly 
requires  !  Thus,  from  beginning  to  end,  it  sets  at  naught  the  best  prin 
ciples  of  the  Constitution,  and  the  very  laws  of  God  ! 

I  might  occupy  your  time  by  exposing  the  unconstitutionality  of  this 
act.  In  denying  the  Trial  by  Jury,  it  is  three  times  unconstitutional  : 
first,  as  the  Constitution  declares  "  the  right  of  the  people  to  be  secure 
in  their  persons  against  unreasonable  seizures  ;  "  secondly,  as  it  further 
declares,  that  "  No  person  shall  be  deprived  of  life,  liberty,  or  property 
without  due  process  of  law ;"  and,  thirdly,  because  it  expressly  de 
clares,  that  "In  suits  at  common  law,  where  the  value  in  controversy 
shall  exceed  twenty  dollars,  the  right  of  trial  by  jury  shall  be  preserved" 
By  this  triple  cord  did  the  framers  of  the  Constitution  secure  the  Trial 
by  Jury  in  every  question  of  Human  Freedom.  That  man  can  be  little 
imbued  with  the  true  spirit  of  American  institutions — he  can  have 
little  sympathy  with  Bills  of  Rights — he  must  be  lukewarm  for  Free 
dom,  who  can  hesitate  to  construe  the  Constitution  so  as  to  secure  this 
safeguard. 

XV. 

He  could  not  withhold  the  following  burst  of  indigna 
tion  : 

The  soul  sickens  in  the  contemplation  of  this  legalized  outrage.  In 
the  dreary  annals  of  the  Past  there  are  many  acts  of  shame — there  are 
ordinances  of  monarchs,  and  laws,  which  have  become  a  bye-word  and 
a -hissing  to  the  nations.  But,  when  we  consider  the  cotmtry  and  the 
age,  I  ask  fearlessly,  What  act  of  shame,  what  ordinance  of  monarch, 
what  law  can  compare  in  atrocity  with  this  enactment  of  an  American 
Congress  ?  I  do  not  forget  Appius  Claudius,  the  tyrant  decemvir  of 
ancient  Rome,  condemning  Virginia  as  a  slave ;  nor  Louis  XIV.  of 


100  A   WORSE   TYRANNY   THAN   THE   STAMP   ACT. 

France,  letting  slip  the  dogs  of  religious  persecution  by  the  revocation 
of  the  edict  of  Nantes  ;  nor  Charles  I.  of  England,  arousing  the  patriot 
rage  of  Hampden,  by  the  extortion  of  Ship-money ;  nor  the  British 
Parliament,  provoking,  in  our  own  country,  spirits  kindred  to  Hamp 
den,  by  the  tyranny  of  the  Stamp  Act  and  Tea  Tax.  I  would  not  ex 
aggerate  ;  I  wish  to  keep  within  bounds ;  but  I  think  no  person  can 
doubt  that  the  condemnation  now  affixed  to  all  these  transactions,  and 
to  their  authors,  must  be  the  lot  hereafter  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  and 
of  every  one,  according  to  the  measure  of  his  influence,  who  gave  it  his 
support  Into  the  immortal  catalogue  of  national  crimes  this  has  now 
passed,  drawing  with  it,  by  an  inexorable  necessity,  its  authors  also,  and 
chiefly  him,  who,  as  President  of  the  United  States,  set  his  name  to 
the  Bill,  and  breathed  into  it  that  final  breath,  without  which  it  would 
have  no  life.  Other  Presidents  may  be  forgotten  ;  but  the  name  signed 
to  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  can  never  be  forgotten.  There  are  depths  of 
infamy,  as  there  are  heights  of  fame.  I  regret  to  say  what  I  must ;  but 
truth  compels  me.  Better  far  for  him  had  he  never  been  born ;  better 
far  for  his  memory,  and  for  the  good  name  of  his  children,  had  he 
never  been  President ! 

I  have  already  likened  this  Bill  to  the  Stamp  Act,  and  I  trust  that 
the  parallel  may  be  continued  yet  further  by  a  burst  of  popular  feeling 
against  all  action  under  it,  similar  to  that  which  glowed  in  the  breasts  of 
our  fathers.  Listen  to  the  words  of  John  Adams,  as  written  in  his  Diary 
for  the  time  : — 

The  year  1765  has  been  the  most  remarkable  year  of  my  life.  That 
enormous  engine,  fabricated  by  the  British  Parliament,  for  battering 
down  all  the  rights  and  liberties  of  America, — I  mean  the  Stamp  Act, 
— has  raised  and  spread  through  the  whole  continent  a  spirit  that  will 
be  recorded  to  our  honor  with  all  future  generations.  In  every  colony, 
from  Georgia  to  New  Hampshire  inclusively,  the  stamp  distributors  and 
inspectors  have  been  compelled  by  the  unconquerable  rage  of  the 
people  to  renounce  their  offices.  Such  and  so  universal  has  been  the 
resentment  of  the  people,  that  every  man  who  has  dared  to  speak  in 
favor  of  the  stamps,  or  to  soften  the  detestation  in  which  they  are  held, 
how  great  soever  his  abilities  and  virtues  had  been  esteemed  before,  or 
whatever  his  fortune,  connections,  and  influence  had  been,  has  been 
seen  to  sink  into  universal  contempt  and  ignominy. 

Surely  the  love  of  Freedom,  cannot  have  so  far  cooled  among  us,  the 
descendants  of  those  who  opposed  the  Stamp  Act,  that  we  are  insensible 
to  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill.  The  unconquerable  rage  of  the  people,  in 
those  other  days,  compelled  the  stamp  distributors  and  inspectors  to 
renounce  their  offices,  and  held  up  to  detestation  all  who  dared  to 


HIS   FEELINGS   TOWARDS   THE   LAW.  IOI 

speak  in  favor  of  the  stamps.  And  shall  we  be  more  tolerant  of  those 
who  volunteer  in  favor  of  this  Bill — more  tolerant  of  the  Slave-Hunter, 
who,  under  its  safeguard,  pursues  his  prey  upon  our  soil  ?  The  Stamp 
Act  could  not  be  executed  here.  Can  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  ? 

And  here,  Sir,  let  me  say,  that  it  becomes  me  to  speak  with  peculiar 
caution.  It  happens  to  me  to  sustain  an  important  relation  to  this 
Bill.  Early  in  professional  life  I  was  designated  by  the  late  Mr.  Justice 
Story  one  of  the  Commissioners  of  the  Courts  of  the  United  States, 
and,  though  I  have  not  very  often  exercised  the  functions  of  this  post, 
yet  my  name  is  still  upon  the  lists.  As  such  I  am  one  of  those  before 
whom,  under  the  recent  Act  of  Congress,  the  panting  fugitive  may  be 
brought  for  the  decision  of  the  question,  whether  he  is  a  freeman  or  a 
slave.  But  while  it  becomes  me  to  speak  witli  caution,  I  shall  not 
hesitate  to  speak  with  plainness.  I  cannot  forget  that  I  am  a  man, 
although  I  am  a  Commissioner. 

He  thus  gives  vent  to  his  own  feelings : 

Surely,  no  person  of  humane  feelings,  and  with  any  true  sense  of 
justice — living  in  a  land  "where  bells  have  knolled  to  church  " — what 
ever  may  be  the  apology  of  public  station,  could  fail  to  recoil  from  such 
service.  For  myself  let  me  say,  that  I  can  imagine  no  office,  no  salary, 
no  consideration,  which  I  would  not  gladly  forego,  rather  than  become 
in  any  way  an  agent  in  enslaving  my  brother-man.  Where  for  me  would 
be  comfort  and  solace,  after  such  a  work  !  In  dreams  and  in  waking 
hours,  in  solitude  and  in  the  street,  in  the  meditations  of  the  closet,  and 
in  the  affairs  of  men,  wherever  I  turned,  there  my  victim  would  stare 
me  in  the  face  ;  from  the  distant  rice-fields  and  sugar  plantations  of  the 
South,  his  cries  beneath  the  vindictive  lash,  his  moans  at  the  thought 
of  Liberty  once  his,  now  alas  !  ravished  from  him,  would  pursue  me, 
repeating  the  tale  of  his  fearful  doom,  and  sounding,  forever  sounding 
in  my  ears,  "  Thou  art  the  man  !  " 

XVI. 

And  yet,  in  the  face  of  these  enormities  of  legislation, 
we  are  told,  he  says,  that  the  Slavery  question  is  settled. 
Nothing,  sir,  can  be  settled,  which  is  not  right.  Noth 
ing  can  be  settled  which  is  adverse  to  Freedom,  or  con- 


102  DUTIES   OF  MASSACHUSETTS   MEN. 

trary  to  the  principles  of  Christianity.  God,  nature,  and 
all  the  holy  sentiments  of  the  heart,  repudiate  any  such 
seeming  settlement. 

o 

Turning  at  last  to  the  duties  of  Massachusetts  men,  he 
thus  sums  up  the  demands  which  must  be  made  upon 
Congress. 

Sir,  I  will  not  dishonor  this  home  of  the  Pilgrims,  and  of  the  Revolution, 
by  admitting — nay,  I  cannot  believe — that  this  Bill  will  be  executed  here. 
Individuals  among  us,  as  elsewhere,  may  forget  humanity  in  a  fancied 
loyalty  to  law  ;  but  the  public  conscience  will  not  allow  a  man,  who  has 
trodden  '  our  streets  as  a  freeman,  to  be  dragged  away  as  a  slave.  By 
his  escape  from  bondage,  he  has  shown  that  true  manhood,  which  must 
grapple  to  him  every  honest  heart.  He  may  be  ignorant,  and  rude,  as 
he  is  poor,  but  he  is  of  a  true  nobility.  The  Fugitive  Slaves  of  the 
United  States  are  among  the  heroes  of  our  age.  In  sacrificing  them  to 
this  foul  enactment  of  Congress,  we  should  violate  every  sentiment  of 
hospitality,  every  whispering  of  the  heart,  every  dictate  of  religion. 

There  are  many  who  will  never  shrink  at  any  cost,  and,  notwithstand 
ing  all  the  atrocious  penalties  of  this  Bill,  from  efforts  to  save  a  wander 
ing  fellow-man  from  bondage  ;  they  will  offer  him  the  shelter  of  their 
houses,  and,  if  need  be,  will  protect  his  liberty  by  force.  But  let  me  be 
understood  ;  I  counsel  no  violence.  There  is  another  power — stronger 
than  any  individual  arm — which  I  invoke  ;  I  mean  that  invincible  Public 
Opinion,  inspired  by  love  of  God  and  man,  which,  without  violence  or 
noise,  gently  as  the  operations  of  nature,  makes  and  unmakes  laws. 
Let  this  opinion  be  felt  in  its  Christian  might,  and  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Bill  will  become  everywhere  upon  our  soil  a  dead  letter.  No  lawyer 
will  aid  it  by  counsel ;  no  citizen  will  become  its  agent ;  it  will  die  of 
inanition — like  a  spider  beneath  an  exhausted  receiver.  Oh  !  it  were 
well  the  tidings  should  spread  throughout  the  land,  that  here  in  Massa 
chusetts  this  accursed  Bill  has  found  no  servants.  "Sire,  I  have  found 
in  Bayonne  honest  citizens  and  brave  soldiers  only ;  but  not  one  execu 
tioner"  was  the  reply  of  the  governor  of  that  place,  to  the  royal  man 
date  from  Charles  IX.  of  France,  ordering  the  Massacre  of  St.  Barthol 
omew. 

But  it  rests  with  you,  my  fellow-citizens,  by  your  words  and  your 
example,  by  your  calm  determinations,  and  your  devoted  lives,  to  do 
this  work.  From  a  humane,  just,  and  religious  people  shall  spring  a 


SUMNER'S  ELECTION  TO  THE  SENATE.  103 

Public  Opinion,  to  keep  perpetual  guard  over  the  liberties  of  all  within 
our  borders.  Nay,  more,  like  the  flaming  sword  of  the  cherubim  at  the 
gates  of  Paradise,  turning  on  every  side,  it  shall  prevent  any  SLAVE- 
HUNTER  from  ever  setting  foot  in  this  Commonwealth.  Elsewhere, 
he  may  pursue  his  human  prey;  he  may  employ  his  congenial  blood 
hounds,  and  exult  in  his  successful  game.  But  into  Massachusetts  he 
must  not  come.  And  yet  again  I  say,  I  counsel  no  violence.  I  would 
not  touch  his  person.  Not  with  whips  and  thongs  would  I  scourge  him 
from  the  land.  The  contempt,  the  indignation,  the  abhorrence  of  the 
community  shall  be  our  weapons  of  offence.  Wherever  he  moves,  he 
shall  find  no  house  to  receive  him — no  table  spread  to  nourish  him — no 
welcome  to  cheer  him.  The  dismal  lot  of  the  Roman  exile  shall  be  his. 
He  shall  be  a  wanderer,  without  roof,  fire,  or  water. 


XVII. 

The  contest  which  resulted  in  the  election  of  Mr. 
SUMNER  to  the  United  States  Senate  the  first  time,  by 
the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts,  in  1851,  was  one  of 
the  most  protracted  and  memorable  in  the  history  of  any 
State.  Mr.  BOUTWELL,  who  is  now  the  colleague  of  Mr. 
SUMNER  in  the  United  States  Senate,  was  then  Gov 
ernor  of  Massachusetts. 

On  the  1 6th  of  January,  on  motion  of  Mr.  BARRY,  a 
member  of  the  House,  the  election  of  a  United  States 
Senator  was  taken  up,  and  the  contest  lasted  three 
months.  The  Daily  Evening  Transcript  for  that  year 
gave  the  following  history  of  the  great  contest : 

The  first  ballot  resulted  as  follows  : 

Whole  number 394 

Necessary  to  a  choice 198 

Charles  Sumner 180 

Robert  C.  Winthrop   1 66 

A  second  ballot  failed  to  elect  either  candidate,  and  the  matter  was 
postponed  for  one  week.  On  January  23d,  the  election  came  up  again 


104  VOTE   OF   THE   LEGISLATURE. 

by  assignment,  and  resulted  in  the  same  manner,  Mr.  Sumner  receiving 
187  votes,  192  being  necessary  to  a  choice.  On  the  26th  of  February, 
the  sixteenth  ballot  was  taken,  but  no  choice  was  made,  Mr.  Sumner 
lacking  two  votes  of  the  number  necessary  for  his  election.  The  matter 
came  up  every  two  weeks  regularly,  with  the  same  result,  until  the  241)1 
of  April,  when  the  end  was  reached,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  following 
report  of  that  day's  proceedings  : 

The  House  was  called  to  order  at  9  o'clock,  and  prayer  was  offered 
by  Rev.  Mr.  Stone.  The  morning  business  was  unimportant,  and  at 
9.  30  the  House  proceeded  to  the  twenty-fifth  ballot  for  United  States 
Senator,  which  resulted  as  follows  : 

Whole  number 386 

Necessary  to  a  choice 194 

Charles  Sumner 192 

R.  C.  Winthrop 168 

Scattering 26 

Blanks i 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  ballot  given  above,  it  was  discovered  that 
two  more  votes  had  been  cast  than  there  were  members  present,  and, 
to  avoid  such  an  occurrence  in  future,  it  was  ordered  that,  in  subsequent 
trials,  the  ballots  be  enclosed  in  envelopes,  and  if  any  contained  more 
than  one  vote,  all  but  one  should  be  rejected,  if  all  the  ballots  so  con 
tained  were  for  the  same  person.  In  case  there  should  be  more  than 
one  candidate  named,  all  should  be  thrown  out.  The  result  was  as  fol 
lows  : 

Whole  number 384 

Necessary  to  a  choice 193 

Charles  Sumner . . .  , 193 

Robert  C.  Winthrop 1 66 

Scattering 25 

Blank 2 

And  Charles  Sumner  was  declared  elected. 

In  the  same  issue  of  that  journal,  the  following"  bright 
and  pointed  editorial  appeared  : 

The  mountain  that  has  been  in  labor  for  the  last  three  months  has 
brought  forth,  and  Charles  Sumner,  Esq.,  has  been  elected  for  six  years, 
from  the  4th  of  March  next,  to  succeed  Mr.  Webster  in  the  Senate  of 
the  United  States.  This  was  consummated  in  the  House  of  Repre- 


THE   PRESS   ON   HIS   ELECTION.  IO5 

sentatives  this  afternoon,  on  the  twenty-sixth  ballot,  by  a  vote  of  193, 
being  the  exact  number  necessary  in  concurrence  with  the  choice  of  the 
Senate,  made  in  January  last.  This  will  be  a  sore  disappointment  to 
the  Whig  Party,  who  have  a  plurality  of  some  20,000  votes  in  the  State  ; 
but  the  fates  have  so  decreed,  and  so  it  must  be.  The  die  is  cast,  and 
the  Whigs  and  the  indomitable  Democracy  have  lost  the  game.  We 
are  not  prepared  to  proclaim  the  country  ruined  in  consequence  of  this 
event.  Mr.  Simmer  is  a  forcible  and  eloquent  speaker,  an  apt  scholar, 
a  man  of  superioi  abilities,  of  polished  address  and  extensive  acquaint 
ance  with  the  men  and  events  of  his  times,  and  he  may  become  a  states 
man  of  mark  in  the  political  arena.  He  will  probably  act  and  work 
with  the  Whig  Party  on  all  questions  but  one,  a  vital  and  momentous 
one,  it  is  true,  as  he  will  find  when  he  gets  to  Washington.  Mr.  Sum- 
ner  will  find,  on  reaching  the  Capital,  that  Massachusetts,  and  even 
New  England,  is  but  a  fraction  of  the  United  States ;  that  there  are  in 
terests  besides  hers  to  be  looked  after  ;  that,  under  his  oath  of  office,  he 
is  bound  to  legislate  for  the  whole  country,  not  a  sectional  part ;  that 
the  constitutional  rights  of  others  must  be  respected ;  and  all  this  his 
good  sense  will  soon  teach  him,  if  he  needs  to  be  taught.  Again,  we 
say,  we  do  not  yet  despair  of  the  Union.  Massachusetts  might  have 
seated  in  the  Senate  a  man  far  more  objectionable  than  Charles  Sum- 
ner  !  Vive  la  Republique  ! 

The  next  day  after  the  election,  the  Daily  Advertiser, 
then  under  the  control  of  the  well-known  journalist,  Mr. 
NATHAN  HALE,  used  the  following  severe  language, 
which  referred,  however,  to  the  coalition  in  the  Legisla 
ture  by  which  the  election  was  secured,  and  having  no 
reference  to  the  personal  fitness  of  Mr.  SUMNER  for  the 
position  : 

It  is  the  grossest  outrage  upon  the  feelings  of  the  majority  of  the 
people  of  the  State,  by  a  combination  between  two  minorities,  which 
we  have  known  to  be  perpetrated  in  any  of  the  States  of  the  Union. 
We  regard  the  event  as  a  most  unfortunate  one  for  the  reputation  of 
the  State,  and  one  which  must  paralyze  its  influence  in  the  councils  of 
the  Union,  and  in  sustaining  a  course  of  legislation  tending  to  har 
monize  the  dissensions  which  have  so  long  disturbed  the  quiet  of  the 
country. 


106  THE   BOSTON  JOURNALS. 

From  a  long  editorial  in  the  Courier,  we  extract  a 
single  paragraph : 

After  every  species  and  degree  of  fluctuation,  the  contest  for  the 
choice  of  a  Senator  of  the  United  States  has  terminated  in  the  election 
of  Charles  Simmer  by  a  single  vote.  Slender  as  is  this  majority,  it  be 
comes  still  more  attenuated  when  taken  in  connection  with  the  fact  that 
two  blank  votes  were  cast  at  the  ballot,  which  were  left  out  of  the  ac 
count  in  estimating  the  number  necessary  to  a  choice.  So  that  Mr. 
Sumner  did  not  in  fact  receive  a  majority  of  the  votes  of  all  who  voted. 
The  result  has  been  unexpected  by  most  people,  and  was  in  truth  owing 
to  the  adoption  of  a  new  method  of  taking  the  vote  at  the  last  ballot, 
when  they  were  inclosed  in  sealed  envelopes.  Two  members,  who  ap 
pear  to  have  cast  real  votes  previously,  took  this  occasion  to  vote  blank. 
Such  a  consummation  had  been  foreseen,  and  an  earnest  protest  was 
made  against  the  secret  ballot  by  Mr.  Colby,  of  Boston,  unfortunately 
without  effect,  and  the  election  was  lost  by  the  craven  skulking  of  some 
poor-spirited  thing.  We  need  hardly  say  that  the  election  of  Mr. 
Sumner  will  be  regretted  by  all  who  wish  the  State  of  Massachusetts  to 
stand  where  she  has  stood,  nobly  and  firmly  fixed  in  her  loyalty  to  the 
American  Union. 

The  Atlas  treated  the  matter  with  more  calmness  and 
candor : 

We  have  from  the  beginning  opposed  the  election  of  Mr.  Sumner. 
We  believe  that  the  Legislature  has  made  a  mistake  in  electing  him. 
Though  a  gentleman  of  talents  and  character,  he  is  not  the  man  best 
suited  to  represent  Massachusetts  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States. 
We  are  not  aware  of  any  acts  of  his  which  require  payment  at  a  price 
so  great.  He  is  a  known  scholar  more  than  a  statesman.  He  has 
studied  the  world  in  the  closet,  through  the  medium  of  books.  He  has 
mingled  little  in  every-day  active  life.  He  is  a  theorist,  and  views  the 
world  through  the  medium  of  the  imagination,  and  not  through  the 
stern  realities  of  life.  In  a  word,  we  believe  him  to  be  an  "  impracti 
cable."  We  shall  be  glad  if,  upon  further  acquaintance,  we  find  our 
selves  mistaken.  The  people  of  Massachusetts,  we  are  certain,  did  not 
wish  Mr.  Sumner' s  election.  Put  the  question  to  them  to-day,  and  a 
large  majority  would  decide  against  him.  The  election  was  brought 
about  by  a  coalition,  by  a  bargain.  The  Governor  of  the  State,  we 
have  reason  to  believe,  cast  his  influence  on  that  side.  Not  that  he 


THE   POST — COMMONWEALTH — TRANSCRIPT.  IOJ 

wished  Mr.  Sumner  elected  particularly,  but  because  he  could  get  Mr. 
Simmer's  friends  to  vote  for  him  for  Governor  next  Fall.  We  believe 
that  the  patronage  of  the  State  has  been  brought  to  bear  upon  this  elec 
tion  ;  that  promises  have  been  made  which  we  shall  watch  closely  to 
see  if  they  are  redeemed  hereafter. 

The  Post  summed  up  the  whole  question  in  its  charac 
teristic  way,  with  a  bristling  little  paragraph : 

A  Whig,  who  refused  to  support  Gen.  Taylor  because  he  was  not 
Whig  enough  ;  an  agitator,  who  would  sacrifice  the  safety  of  the  Union 
by  aggravating  sectional  animosity  ;  an  Abolitionist,  who  would  treat 
the  laws  of  the  constitutional  Legislature  of  his  country  as  the  colonists 
did  the  oppressive  edicts  of  a  tyrannical  power  !  This  is  the  political 
beauty  the  Coalition  Democrats  have  voted  for  as  a  member  of  the 
United  States  Senate. 

The  Commonwealth  was  the  only  paper  in  Boston 
who  then  saw  in  Mr.  SUMNER  the  great  statesman  of 
the  future,  and  it  gave  utterance  to  the  following  re 
markable  prophecy,  which  has  been  so  strikingly  ful 
filled  : 

Mr.  Sumner  will  go  into  the  Senate  unpledged  to  the  measures 
of  any  party  and  free  to  pursue  such  a  course  upon  all  questions  of 
national  policy  as  his  own  judgment  and  feeling  of  responsibility  to  his 
constituents  shall  dictate.  He  will  be  a  Senator  worthy  of  Massachu 
setts,  "legislating,"  as  the  Transcript  truly  says,  "  for  the  whole  country, 
not  for  a  sectional  part,  and  respecting  the  constitutional  rights  of  others," 
and  of  all. 

In  commenting  upon  this  last  paragraph,  the  Tran 
script  said : 

He  goes  to  Washington  "unpledged."  There  is  a  world  of  promise 
in  that  confession ;  for  Mr.  Sumner  will  have  the  courage  to  do  right, 
even  if  he  contradict  himself." 


IOS  SERENITY   UNDER   VITUPERATION. 


XVIII. 

Thus  ended  the  battle  which  determined  the  future 
career  of  the  successful  candidate  ;  and  it  may  be  reck 
oned  among  the  important  events  which  led  to  the 
grand  crisis  that  was  looming  up  in  the  future.  There 
has  been  no  instance,  perhaps,  since  the  case  of  Gen. 
JACKSON,  in  which  any  public  man  has  been  chosen  for  a 
high  political  station  who  became  the  object  of  such 
bitter  assaults  by  the  Press.  The  vituperation  heaped 
upon  him  from  every  quarter  of  the  Union  was  without 
a  parallel.  But  Mr.  SUMNER  preserved  through  it  all  the 
most  admirable  dignity  of  behavior,  and  the  completest 
serenity  of  spirit.  Neither  strangers,  nor  the  most  in 
timate  friends,  could  discover  that  his  spirits  were  even 
ruffled ;  and  to  reply  to  any  of  the  assaults  made  upon 
him,  however  malignant,  or  the  prophecies  of  evil  omen 
which  were  so  profusely  uttered,  was  the  last  thing  he 
thought  of.  Indeed,  through  life  he  made  it  a  rule  never 
to  reply  to  attacks,  unless  it  became  necessary  to  for 
tify  by  further  authorities  the  facts  he  had  stated,  for 
his  faith  that  truth  would  finally  prevail  was  never 
shaken.  He  never  displayed  the  least  anxiety  to  win 
conviction  from  the  obstinate  or  stolid  by  reiterating  ar 
guments  or  statements  already  made.  He  believed  that 
every  truth  could  take  care  of  itself;  that  if  crushed  to 
earth,  it  would  rise  again.  This  was  sometimes  at 
tributed  to  recklessness,  and  sorhetimes  to  indifference  ; 
whilst  all  the  time  it  was  an  assurance  of  faith  which  im 
pressed  those  who  knew  him  best,  with  its  positive  sub 
limity. 

But  wherever  the  news  of  his  election  to  the  Senate 


THE  FREE-SOILERS   OF   THE   SENATE. 

became  known,  among  the  three  hundred  thousand 
Free-Soil  voters  in  the  recent  Presidential  contest,  it 
was  received  with  unbounded  joy  :  and  these  voters 
were  scattered  through  all  the  Free  States.  The  period 
of  his  election  was  a  marked  era  in  our  politics.  Most 
of  the  statesmen  who  had  swayed  the  country,  from  the 
time  of  Madison,  were  disappearing  from  the  field. 
Mr.  CALHOUN  was  already  dead :  HENRY  CLAY  was 
soon  to  follow.  The  old  Whig  party  had  fought  its  last 
battle.  The  Democrats  had  centred  all  their  chances 
upon  the  South  and  the  Pro-Slavery  party  of  the  North, 
and  there  it  was  to  fight  its  last  fight  before  it  dissolved 
in  the  fires  of  the  Rebellion. 

XIX. 

In  the  Senate,  Mr.  SUMNER  was  to  appear  in  the  list 
as  a  Free-Soiler.  There  were  but  two  others  who 
claimed  that  distinction — SALMON  P.  CHASE,  from  Ohio, 
and  JOHN  P.  HALE,  from  New  Hampshire.  These  were 
but  the  morning-stars  of  the  great  day  of  emancipation 
that  was  so  soon  to  dawn  upon  a  redeemed  country,  and 
a  disenthralled  race. 

In  his  letter  to  the  Legislature  of  the  State,  accepting 
the  honor  of  Senatorship,  he  speaks  of  the  appointment 
finding  him  in  a  private  station,  and  he  accepts  the  office 
with  "  a  grateful  consciousness  of  personal  indepen 
dence  ;  "  as  an  honor  that  had  come  to  him  unsought 
and  undesired.  "  I  accept  it,"  he  continued,  "  as  the 
servant  of  Massachusetts,  mindful  of  the  sentiments 
solemnly  uttered  by  her  successive  Legislatures,  of  the 
genius  which  inspires  her  history,  and  of  the  men, — her 
perpetual  pride  and  ornament, — who  breathed  into  her 
that  breath  of  liberty  which  early  made  her  an  exam- 


110  HIS   SENATORIAL   CAREER   BEGINS. 

pie  to  her  sister  States.  With  me,  the  union  is  twice 
blessed — first,  as  the  powerful  guardian  of  the  repose 
and  happiness  of  thirty-one  sovereign  States,  clasped  by 
the  endearing  name  of  country  :  and  next,  as  the  model 
of  that  all-embracing  federation  of  States  by  which  unity, 
peace  and  concord  will  finally  be  organized  among  the 
nations."  He  declares  himself  fully  resolved  t;o  oppose 
any  effort  to  introduce  "  the  sectional  evil  of  slavery  into 
Free  States."  He  would  follow  the  example  of  the 
great  triumvirate  of  American  Freedom,  Washington, 
Franklin  and  Jefferson  ;  and  in  the  words  of  the  first,  he 
concludes  his  letter: — "  I  see  my  duty  that  in  standing 
up  for  the  liberties  of  my  country,  whatever  difficulties 
and  discouragements  lie  in  my  way,  I  dare  not  shrink 
from  it ;  and  I  rely  on  that  Being  who  has  not  left  to  us 
the  choice  of  duties,  that  while  I  shall  conscientiously 
discharge  mine,  I  shall  not  finally  lose  my  reward." 


SECTION   FIFTH. 

Senatorial  Career. 
I. 

COMPARED  with  the  narrow  field  where  he  had  hitherto 
carried  on  the  battle,  the  arena  that  was  to  witness  his  fu 
ture  struggles  was  as  the  two  days'  skirmishing  of  Ligny 
and  Quatre  Bras,  to  the  final  overthrow  at  Waterloo. 

The  scene  and  its  surroundings  Mrs.  Harriet  Beecher 
Stowe  has  so  finely  sketched,  it  were  a  pity  not  to  let 
the  reader  carry  it  on  his  fancy  as  he  goes  with  the 
champions  into  the  heat  of  the  conflict : 


MRS.    STOWE — CONDITION   OF  THE   COUNTRY.  Ill 

And  now  came  the  great  battle  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law.  The 
sorceress  slavery  meditated  a  grand  coup  d' etat  that  should  found  a 
Southern  slave  empire,  and  shake  off  the  troublesome  North,  and  to 
that  intent  her  agents  concocted  a  statute  so  insulting  to  Northern 
honor,  so  needlessly  offensive  in  its  provisions,  so  derisive  of  what  were 
understood  to  be  its  religious  convictions  and  humane  sentiments,  that 
it  was  thought  verily,  "  The  North  never,  will  submit  to  this,  and  we 
shall  make  here  the  breaking  point."  Then  arose  Daniel  Webster,  that 
lost  Archangel  of  New  England — he  who  had  won  her  confidence  by 
his  knowledge  of  and  reverence  for  all  that  was  most  sacred  in  her,  and 
moved  over  to  the  side  of  evil !  It  was  as  if  a  great  constellation  had 
changed  sides  in  the  heavens,  drawing  after  it  a  third  part  of  the  stars. 

The  North,  perplexed,  silenced,  troubled,  yielded  for  a  moment. 
For  a  brief  space  all  seemed  to  go  down  before  that  mighty  influence, 
and  all  listened,  as  if  spell-bound,  to  the  serpent  voice  with  which  he 
scoffed  at  the  idea  that  there  was  a  law  of  God  higher  than  any  law  or 
constitution  of  the  United  States. 

But  that  moment  of  degradation  was  the  last.  Back  came  the 
healthy  blood,  the  re-awakened  pulse  of  moral  feeling  in  New  Eng 
land,  and  there  were  found  voices  on  all  sides  to  speak  for  the  right, 
and  hearts  to  respond,  and  on  this  side  of  re-awakened  moral  feeling 
Suraner  was  carried  into  the  United  States  Senate,  to  take  the  seat 
vacated  by  Webster.  The  right  was  not  yet  victorious,  but  the  battle 
had  turned  so  far  that  its  champion  had  a  place  to  stand  on  in  the 
midst  of  the  fray. 

And  what  a  battle  was  that !  What  an  ordeal !  What  a  gauntlet  to 
run  was  that  of  the  man  in  Washington  who  in  those  days  set  himself 
against  the  will  of  the  great  sorceress  !  Plied  with  temptation  on  the 
right  hand  and  on  the  left,  studied,  mapped  out  like  a  fortress  to  be 
attacked  and  taken,  was  every  Northern  man  who  entered  the  arena. 
Could  he  be  bought,  bribed,  cajoled,  flattered,  terrified?  Which,  or 
all  ?  So  planned  the  conspirators  in  their  secret  conclaves. 

The  gigantic  Giddings — he  who  brought  to  the  strife  nerves  tough 
ened  by  backwoods  toil  and  frontier  fights  with  Indians — once  said  of 


ii2  SUMNER'S  SENATORIAL  OATH. 

this  warfare  :  "  I've  seen  hard  fighting  with  clubs  and  bullets ;  I've 
seen  men  falling  all  around  me  ;  but  I  tell  you  it  takes  more  courage 
to  stand  up  in  oire's  seat  in  Congress  and  say  the  right  thing,  than  to 
walk  up  to  the  cannon's  mouth.  There's  no  such  courage  as  that  of 
the  anti-slavery  men  there." 

Now,  Simmer's  superb  vitality,  that  hardy  yeoman  blood  which  his 
ancestors  brought  from  England,  stood  him  in  excellent  stead.  His 
strong  and  active  brain  was  based  on  a  body  muscular,  vigorous,  and 
healthy,  incapable  of  nervous  tremor,  bearing  him  with  a  steady  aplomb 
through  much  that  would  be  confusing  and  weakening  to  men  of  less 
physical  force.  Sumner  -had  riot  the  character  of  a  ready  debater  ;  not 
a  light-armed  skirmisher  was  he ;  he  resembled  rather  one  of  the 
mailed  warriors  of  ancient  tourney.  When  he  had  deliberately  put 
on  his  armor,  all  polished  and  finished  down  to  buckle  and  shoe- 
latchet,  and  engraved  with  whatnot  of  classic,  or  Venetian,  or  Genoese 
device  ;  when  he  put  down  his  visor,  steadied  his  lance,  took  sure  aim, 
and  weVit  man  and  horse  against  his  antagonist,  all  went  down  before 
him,  as  went  down  all  before  the  lance  of  Cceur-de-Lion. 

Such  a  charge  into  the  enemy  was  his  first  great  speech,  "  Freedom 
National,  Slavery  Sectional,"  which  he  directed  against  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law.  It  was  a  perfect  land-slide  of  history  and  argument ;  an 
avalanche  under  which  the  opposing  party  were  logically  buried,  and  it 
has  been  a  magazine  from  which  catapults  have  been  taken  to  beat 
down  their  fortresses  ever  since. 

II. 

Mr.  Sumner's  credentials  as  Senator  were  presented 
at  the  opening  of  the  Thirty-second  Congress,  December 
i,  1851,  when  he  took  the  oath  of  office.  On  the  26th 
of  May,  1852,  he  presented  a  memorial  against  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill.  But  he  was  not  allowed  to  proceed 
with  the  remarks  he  desired  to  make.  On  no  other  sub-' 
ject  except  slavery  was  any  check  imposed  upon  Senators. 


HE   GETS   THE   FLOOR   AT   LAST.  113 

But  in  moving-  the  reference  of  the  petition  to  the  Com 
mittee  on  the  Judiciary,  he  remarked  that  he  hoped  he 
was  not  expecting"  too  much  if,  at  some  fit  moment,  he 
should  bespeak  the  clear  and  candid  attention  of  the 
Senate,  while  he  undertook  to  set  forth  frankly  and  fully, 
and  with  entire  respect  for  that  body,  convictions  deeply 
cherished  in  his  own  State,  though  disregarded  in  the 
Capital ;  convictions  to  which  he  was  bound  by  every 
sentiment  of  the  heart,  by  every  fibre  of  his  being,  by  all 
his  devotion  to  country,  by  his  love  of  God  and  man. 
11  Upon  these,"  he  said,  "  I  do  not  now  enter ;  suffice  it 
for  the  present  for  me  to  remark,  that  when  I  undertake 
that  service,  I  believe  I  shall  utter  nothing  which  in  any 
just  sense  can  be  called  sectional ;  unless  the  Constitu 
tion  is  sectional,  and  unless  the  sentiments  of  the  Fathers 
were  sectional.  It  is  my  happiness  to  believe,  and  my 
hope  to  be  able  to  show,  that  according  to  the  true  spirit 
of  the  Constitution,  and  the  sentiments  of  the  Fathers, 
FREEDOM,  and  not  Slavery,  is  national ;  while  SLAVERY, 
and  not  Freedom,  is  sectional." 

A  vast  majority  of  the  Senate  were  determined  that 
Mr.  Sumner  should  not  be  allowed  to  deliver  the  speech 
which  it  was  well  known  he  had  prepared.  But  he  vigi 
lantly  watched  his  opportunity.  It  came  at  last  on  the 
26th  of  August,  1852,  and  being  by  the  Rules  of  the 
Senate  entitled  to  the  floor,  he  held  it  against  all  oppo 
sition  for  nearly  four  hours ;  during  which  he  pronounced 
that  immortal  ORATION— as  it  would  have  been  called  by 
the  Romans  in  the  days  of  Cicero — which  will  forever 
be  regarded  as  the  most  powerful  defence  of  the  eternal 
principles  of  Freedom  ever  uttered  in  that  Senate  House. 
It  sounded  like  a  voice  from  the  dead — it  stirred  the 

whole  Nation — it  foretold  the  doom  of  American  Slavery 
8 


114  PETITION   OF   SOCIETY   OF   FRIENDS. 

Its  length  precludes  its  full  admission.  But  we  give 
passages  sufficiently  copious  to  preserve  the  chain  of  the 
argument  and  without  trying  to  describe  the  effect  on 
the  vast  assembly  that  crowded  the  Senate  Chamber, 
which  would  be  at  best  but  a  poor  attempt ;  for,  as  an  old 
Greek  writer  said  of  the  eloquence  of  his  countrymen— 
"  The  wonder-working  power  of  oratory  must  needs  die 
with  the  delivery." 

III. 

The  theme  was — 

FREEDOM  NATIONAL  ;  SLAVERY  SECTIONAL. 
The  occasion  was  the  following  memorial  of  the  mem 
bers  of  the  Society  of  Friends  of  New  England  : 

We,  therefore,  respectfully,  but  earnestly  and  sincerely,  entreat  you 
to  repeal  the  law  of  the  last  Congress  respecting  fugitive  slaves ;  first 
and  principally,  because  of  its  injustice  towards  a  long  sorely-oppressed 
and  deeply-injured  people  ;  and,  secondly,  in  order  that  we,  together 
with  other  conscientious  sufferers,  may  be  exempted  from  the  pen 
alties  which  it  imposes  on  all  who,  in  faithfulness  to  their  Divine  Master, 
and  in  discharge  of  their  obligations  to  their  distressed  fellow-men,  feel 
'bound  to  regulate  their  conduct,  even  under  the  heaviest  penalties  which 
man  can  inflict  for  so  doing,  by  the  Divine  injunction,  "  All  things 
whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them  ; " 
and  by  the  other  commandment,  "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God 
with  all  thy  heart,  and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself." 

"  The  subject  is  at  last  broadly  before  the  Senate, 
and  by  the  blessing  of  God,  it  shall  be  discussed." 

These  were  the  words  with  which  he  opened  his 
'Speech,  after  the  last  impediment  had  been  swept 
away.  He  then  entered  upon  his  main  argument  :— 

Sir,  a  severe  lawgiver  of  early  Greece  vainly  sought  to  secure  per 
manence  for  his  imperfect  institutions,  by  providing  that  the  citizen 
who,  at  any  time,  attempted  their  alteration  or  repeal,  should  appear  in 
ihe  public  assembly  with  a  halter  about  his  neck,  ready  to  be  drawn  if 


FREEDOM   NATIONAL — SLAVERY   SECTIONAL.  Il5 

his  proposition  failed  to  be  adopted.  A  tyrannical  spirit  among  us,  in 
unconscious  imitation  of  this  antique  and  discarded  barbarism,  seeks  to 
surround  an  offensive  institution  with  a  similar  safeguard.  In  the  ex 
isting  distemper  of  the  public  mind  and  at  this  present  juncture,  no 
man  can  enter  upon  the  service  which  I  now  undertake,  without  a  per 
sonal  responsibility,  such  as  can  be  sustained  only  by  that  sense  of  duty 
which,  under  God,  is  always  our  best  support.  That  personal  respon 
sibility  I  accept  Before  the  Senate  and  the  country  let  me  be  held 
accountable  for  this  act,  and  for  every  word  which  I  utter. 

With  me,  sir,  there  is  no  alternative.  Painfully  convinced  of  the  un 
utterable  wrongs  and  woes  of  slavery  ;  profoundly  believing  that,  ac 
cording  to  the  true  spirit  of  the  Constitution  and  the  sentiments  of  the 
fathers,  it  can  find  no  place  under  our  National  Government — that  it  is 
in  every  respect  sectional,  and  in  no  respect  national — that  it  is  always 
and  everywhere  the  creature  and  dependent  of  the  States,  and  never 
anywhere  the  creature  or  dependent  of  the  Nation,  and  that  the  Nation 
can  never,  by  legislative  or  other  act,  impart  to  it  any  support,  under  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  ;  with  these  convictions,  I  could  not 
allow  this  session  to  reach  its  close,  without  making  or  seizing  an  op 
portunity  to  declare  myself  openly  against  the  usurpation,  injustice, 
and  cruelty  of  the  late  enactment  by  Congress  for  the  recovery  of 
fugitive  slaves.  Full  well  I  know,  sir,  the  difficulties  of  this  discussion, 
arising  from  prejudices  of  opinion  and  from  adverse  conclusions,  strong 
and  sincere  as  my  own.  Full  well  I  know  that  I  am  in  a  small  minority, 
with  few  here  to  whom  I  may  look  for  sympathy  or  support.  Full  well 
I  know  that  I  must  utter  things  unwelcome  to  many  in  this  body,  which 
I  cannot  do  without  pain.  Full  well  I  know  that  the  institution  of 
slavery  in  our  country,  which  I  now  proceed  to  consider,  is  as  sensi 
tive  as  it  is  powerful — possessing  a  power  to  shake  the  whole  land  with 
a  sensitiveness  that  shrinks  and  trembles  at  the  touch.  But,  while 
these  things  may  properly  prompt  me  to  caution  and  reserve,  they  can 
not  change  my  duty,  or  my  determination  to  perform  it.  For  this  I- 
willingly  forget  myself,  and  all  personal  consequences.  The  favor  and 
good-will  of  my  fellow-citizens,  of  my  brethren  of  the  Senate,  sir, — 
grateful  to  me  as  it  justly  is — I  am  ready,  if  required,  to  sacrifice.  All 
that  I  am  or  may  be,  I  freely  offer  to  this  cause. 

And  here  allow  me,  for  one  moment,  to  refer  to  myself  and  my  posi 
tion.  Sir,  I  have  never  been  a  politician.  The  slave  of  principles,  I 
call  no  party  master.  By  sentiment,  education,  and  conviction,  a 
friend  of  Human  Rights,  in  their  utmost  expansion,  I  have  ever 


I  [6  HE   DISCLAIMS   VIOLEXCE   AND    DISCOURTESY. 

most  sincerely  embraced  the  Democratic  Idea ;  not,  indeed,  as  repre 
sented  or  professed  by  any  party,  but  according  to  its  real  significance, 
as  transfigured  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  in  the  injunc 
tions  of  Christianity. 

Party  does  not  constrain  me ;  nor  is  my  independence  lessened  by 
any  relations  to  the  office  which  gives  me  a  title  to  be  heard  on  this 
floor.  And  here,  sir,  I  may  speak  proudly.  By  no  effort,  by  no  desire 
of  my  own,  I  find  myself  a  Senator  of  the  United  States.  Never  be 
fore  have  I  held  public  office  of  any  kind.  With  the  ample  opportu 
nities  of  private  life  I  was  content.  No  tombstone  for  me  could  bear 
a  fairer  inscription  than  this:  "Here  lies  one  who,  without  the  honors 
or  emoluments  of  public  station,  did  something  for  his  fellow-man." 
From  such  simple  aspirations  I  was  taken  away  by  the  free  choice  of  my 
native  Commonwealth,  and  placed  in  this  responsible  post  of  duty, 
without  personal  obligation  of  any  kind,  beyond  what  was  implied  in 
my  life  and  published  words.  The  earnest  friends,  by  whose  con 
fidence  I  was  first  designated,  asked  nothing  from  me,  and,  throughout 
the  long  conflict  which  ended  in  my  election,  rejoiced  in  the  position 
which  I  most  carefully  guarded.  To  all  my  language  was  uniform,  that 
I  did  not  desire  to  be  brought  forward  :  that  I  would  do  nothing  to  pro 
mote  the  result ;  that  I  had  no  pledges  or  promises  to  offer  ;  that  the 
office  should  seek  me,  and  not  I  the  office  ;  and  that  it  should  find  me  in 
all  respects  an  independent  man,  bound  to  no  party  and  to  no  human  be 
ing,  but  only,  according  to  my  best  judgment,  to  act  for  the  good  of  all. 
In  this  spirit  I  have  come  here,  and  in  this  spirit  I  shall  speak  to-day. 

He  early  disclaims  violence  and  discourtesy  in  debate, 
into  whose  indulgence  he  was  never  to  be  provoked. 

Rejoicing  in  my  independence,  and  claiming  nothing  from  party  ties, 
I  throw  myself  upon  the  candor  and  magnanimity  of  the  Senate.  I 
now  ask  your  attention  ;  but  I  trust  not  to  abuse  it.  I  may  speak 
strongly  ;  for  I  shall  speak  openly  and  from  the  strength  of  my  con 
victions.  1  may  speak  warmly  ;  for  I  shall  speak  from  the  heart.  But 
in  no  event  can  I  forget  the  amenities  which  belong  to  debate,  and 
which  especially  become  this  body.  Slavery  I  must  condemn  with  my 
whole  soul ;  but  here  I  need  only  borrow  the  language  of  slaveholders 
themselves  ;  nor  would  it  accord  with  my  habits  or  my  sense  of  justice 
to  exhibit  them  as  the  impersonation  of  the  institution — Jefferson  calls 
it  the  "enormity" — which  they  cherish.  Of  them  I  do  not  speak  ;  but 
without  fear  and  without  favor,  as  without  impeachment  of  any  person, 


NO    COMPROMISE   FINAL.  1 1/ 

I  assail  this  wrong.  Again,  sir,  I  may  err  ;  but  it  will  be  with  the 
Fathers.  I  plant  myself  on  the  ancient  ways  of  the  Republic,  with  its 
grandest  names,  its  surest  landmarks,  and  all  its  original  altar-fires  about 
me. 

IV. 

And  now,  on  the  very  threshold,  I  encounter  the  objection  that  there 
is  a  final  settlement,  in  principle  and  substance,  of  the  question  of 
Slavery,  and  that  all  discussion  of  it  is  closed.  Both  the  old  political 
parties  of  the  country,  by  formal  resolutions,  in  their  recent  conven 
tions  at  Baltimore,  have  united  in  this  declaration.  On  a  subject  which 
for  years  has  agitated  the  public  mind ;  which  yet  palpitates  in  every 
heart  and  burns  on  every  tongue ;  which,  in  its  immeasurable  import 
ance,  dwarfs  all  other  subjects ;  which,  by  its  constant  and  gigantic 
presence,  throws  a  shadow  across  these  Halls ;  which  at  this  very  time 
calls  for  appropriations  to  meet  extraordinary  expenses  it  has  caused, 
they  have  imposed  the  rule  of  silence.  According  to  them,  sir,  we  may 
speak  of  everything  except  that  alone,  which  is  most  present  in  all  our 
minds. 

To  this  combined  effort  I  might  fitly  reply,  that,  with  flagrant  incon 
sistency,  it  challenges  the  very  discussion  which  it  pretends  to  forbid. 
Such  a  declaration,  on  the  eve  of  an  election,  is,  of  course,  submitted 
to  the  consideration  and  ratification  of  the  people.  Debate,  inquiry, 
discussion,  are  the  necessary  consequence.  Silence  becomes  im 
possible.  Slavery,  which  you  profess  to  banish  from  the  public  atten 
tion,  openly  by  your  invitation  enters  every  political  meeting  and  every 
political  convention.  Nay,  at  this  moment  it  stalks  into  this  Senate, 
crying,  like  the  daughters  of  the  horseleech,  "  Give,  give  !  " 

But  no  unanimity  of  politicians  can  uphold  the  baseless  assumption, 
that  a  law,  or  any  conglomerate  of  laws,  under  the  name  of  Compro 
mise,  or  howsoever  called,  is  final.  Nothing  can  be  plainer  than  this; 
that,  by  no  parliamentary  device  or  knot,  can  any  Legislature  tie  the 
hands  of  a  succeeding  Legislature,  so  as  to  prevent  the  full  exercise  of 
its  constitutional  powers.  Each  Legislature,  under  a  just  sense  of  its 
responsibility,  must  judge  for  itself;  and,  if  it  think  proper,  it  may  revise 
or  amend,  or  absolutely  undo  the  work  of  its  predecessors.  The  laws 
of  the  Medes  and  Persians  are  proverbially  said  to  have  been  unalter 
able  ;  but  they  stand  forth  in  history  as  a  single  example  of  such  irra- 
tLnal  defiance  of  the  true  principles  of  all  law. 


Il8  FREEDOM   OF   SPEECH   ABOVE   ALL. 

To  make  a  law  final,  so  as  not  to  be  reached  by  Congress,  is,  by  mere 
legislation,  to  fasten  a  new  provision  on  the  Constitution.  Nay,  more  ; 
it  gives  to  the  law  a  character  which  the  very  Constitution  does  not 
possess.  The  wise  fathers  did  not  treat  the  country  as  a  Chinese  foot, 
never  to  grow  after  infancy ;  but,  anticipating  Progress,  they  declared 
expressly  that  their  great  Act  is  not  final.  According  to  the  Consti 
tution  itself,  there  is  not  one  of  its  existing  provisions — not  even  that 
with  regard  to  fugitives  from  labor — which  may  not  at  all  times  be 
reached  by  amendment,  and  thus  be  drawn  into  debate.  This  is  rational 
and  just.  Sir,  nothing  from  man's  hands,  nor  law,  nor  constitution,  can 
be  final.  Truth  alone  is  final. 

Inconsistent  and  absurd,  this  effort  is  tyrannical  also.  The  responsi 
bility  for  the  recent  Slave  Act  and  for  Slavery  everywhere  within  the 
jurisdiction  of  Congress  necessarily  involves  the  right  to  discuss  them. 
To  separate  these  is  impossible.  Like  the  twenty-fifth  rule  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  against  petitions  on  Slavery — now  repealed 
and  dishonored — the  Compromise,  as  explained  and  urged,  is  a  curtail 
ment  of  the  actual  powers  of  legislation,  and  a  perpetual  denial  of  the 
indisputable  principle  that  the  right  to  deliberate  is  co-extensive  with 
the  responsibility  for  an  act.  To  sustain  Slavery,  it  is  now  proposed  to 
trample  on  free  speech.  In  any  country  this  would  be  grievous  ;  but 
here,  where  the  Constitution  expressly  provides  against  abridging  free 
dom  of  speech,  it  is  a  special  outrage.  In  vain  do  we  condemn  the  des 
potisms  of  Europe,  while  we  borrow  the  rigors  with  which  they  repress 
Liberty,  and  guard  their  own  uncertain  power.  For  myself,  in  no  fac 
tious  spirit,  but  solemnly  and  in  loyalty  to  the  Constitution,  as  a  Senator 
of  the  United  States,  representing  a  free  Commonwealth,  I  protest 
against  this  wrong.  On  Slavery,  as  on  every  other  subject,  I  claim  the 
right  to  be  heard.  That  right  I  cannot,  I  will  not  abandon.  "  Give 
me  the  liberty  to  know,  to  utter  and  to  argue  freely,  above  all  liberties  ;  " 
these  are  the  glowing  words  which  flashed  from  the  soul  of  John  Milton, 
in  his  struggles  with  English  tyranny.  With  equal  fervor  they  should  be 
echoed  now  by  every  American,  not  already  a  slave. 

But,  sir,  this  effort  is  impotent  as  tyrannical.  The  convictions  of 
the  heart  cannot  be  repressed.  The  utterances  of  conscience  must  be 
heard.  They  break  forth  with  irrepressible  might.  As  well  attempt 
to  check  the  tides  of  Ocean,  the  currents  of  the  Mississippi,  or  the 
rushing  waters  of  Niagara.  The  discussion  of  Slavery  will  proceed, 
wherever  two  or  three  are  gathered  together — by  the  fireside,  on  the 
highway,  at  the  public  meeting,  in  the  church.  The  movement  against 


RELATIONS    OF   THE    GOVERNMENT   TO   SLAVERY.         I  IQ 

Slavery  is  from  the  Everlasting  Arm.  Even  now  it  is  gathering  its 
forces,  soon  to  be  confessed  everywhere.  It  may  not  yet  be  felt  in 
high  places  of  office  and  power ;  but  all  who  can  put  their  ears  humbly 
to  the  ground,  will  hear  and  comprehend  its  incessant  and  advancing 
tread. 

V. 

The  relations  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States — I  speak  of 
the  National  Government — to  Slavery,  though  plain  and  obvious,  are 
constantly  misunderstood.  A  popular  belief  at  this  moment  makes 
Slavery  a  national  institution,  and,  of  course,  renders  its  support  a 
national  duty.  The  extravagance  of  this  error  can  hardly  be  surpassed. 
An  institution,  which  our  fathers  most  carefully  omitted  to  name  in  the 
Constitution,  which,  according  to  the  debates  in  the  Convention,  they 
refused  to  cover  with  any  "  sanction,"  and  which,  at  the  original  organi 
zation  of  the  Government,  was  merely  sectional,  existing  nowhere  on 
the  national  territory,  is  now,  above  all  other  things,  blazoned  as  na 
tional.  Its  supporters  plume  themselves  as  national.  The  old  political 
parties,  while  upholding  it,  claim  to  be  national.  A  National  Whig  is 
simply  a  Slavery  Whig,  and  a  National  Democrat  is  simply  a  Slavery 
Democrat,  in  contradistinction  to  all  who  regard  Slavery  as  a  sectional 
institution,  within  the  exclusive  control  of  the  States,  and  with  which 
the  nation  has  nothing  to  do. 

As  Slavery  assumes  to  be  national,  so,  by  an  equally  strange  perver 
sion,  Freedom  is  degraded  to  be  sectional,  and  all  who  uphold  it,  under 
the  national  Constitution,  share  this  same  epithet.  The  honest  efforts 
to  secure  its  blessings,  everywhere  within  the  jurisdiction  of  Congress, 
are  scouted  as  sectional ;  and  this  cause,  which  the  founders  of  our 
National  Government  had  so  much  at  heart,  is  called  sectionalism. 
These  terms,  now  belonging  to  the  commonplaces  of  political  speech, 
are  adopted  and  misapplied  by  most  persons  without  reflection.  But 
herein  is  the  power  of  Slavery.  According  to  a  curious  tradition  of  the 
French  language,  Louis  XIV.,  the  grand  monarch,  by  an  accidental 
error  of  speech, 'among  supple  courtiers,  changed  the  gender  of  a  noun  ; 
but  Slavery  has  done  more.  It  has  changed  word  for  word.  It  has 
taught  men  to  say  national  instead  of  sectional,  and  sectional  instead  of 
national. 

Slavery  national !  Sir,  this  is  all  a  mistake  and  absurdity,  fit  to  take 
a  place  in  some  new  collection  of  Vulgar  Errors,  by  some  other  Sir 


120  SLAVERY   AND   THE   NATIONAL   GOVERNMENT. 

Thomas  Browne,  with  the  ancient  but  exploded  stories,  that  the  toad 
had  a  stone  in  its  head,  and  that  ostriches  digest  iron.  According  to 
the  true  spirit  of  the  Constitution,  and  the  sentiments  of  the  Fathers, 
Slavery  and  not  Freedom  is  sectional,  while  Freedom  and  not  Slavery 
is  national.  On  this  unanswerable  proposition  I  take  my  stand,  and 
here  commences  my  argument. 

The  subject  presents  itself  under  two  principal  heads  :  FIRST,  the 
true  relations  of  the  National  Government  to  Slavery,  wherein  it  will 
appear  that  there  is  no  national  fountain  out  of  which  Slavery  can  be 
derived,  and  no  national  power,  under  the  Constitution,  by  which  it  can 
be  supported.  Enlightened  by  this  general  survey,  we  shall  be  prepared 
to  consider,  SECONDLY,  the  true  nature  of  the  provision  for  the  rendition 
of  fugitives  from  service,  and  herein  especially  the  unconstitutional  and 
offensive  legislation  of  Congress  in  pursuance  thereof. 

I.  And  now  for  the  TRUE  RELATIONS  OF  THE  NATIONAL  GOVERN 
MENT  TO  SLAVERY.  These  will  be  readily  apparent,  if  we  do  not 
neglect  well-established  principles. 

If  Slavery  be  national,  if  there  be  any  power  in  the  National  Gov 
ernment  to  uphold  this  institution — as  in  the  recent  Slave  Act — it  must 
be  by  virtue  of  the  Constitution.  Nor  can  it  be  by  mere  inference,  impli 
cation,  or  conjecture.  According  to  the  uniform  admission  of  courts 
and  jurists  in  Europe,  again  and, again  promulgated  in  our  country, 
Slavery  can  be'derived  only  from  clear  and  special  recognition.  "  The 
state  of  Slavery,"  said  Lord  Mansfield,  pronouncing  judgment  in  the 
great  case  of  Somerset*,  "  is  of  such  a  nature,  that  it  is  incapable  of 
being  introduced  on  any  reasons  moral  or  political,  but  only  by  positive 
law.  It  is  so  odious,  that  nothing  can  be  suffered  to  support  it  but 
POSITIVE  LAW."  And  a  slaveholding  tribunal, — the  Supreme  Court  of 
Mississippi, — adopting  the  same  principle,  has  said  : 

"Slavery  is  condemned  by  reason,  and  the  laws  of  nature.  It  exists 
and  can  exist  only  through  municipal  regulations." — (Harry  v.  Decker, 
Walker  R.  42.) 

And  another  slave-holding  tribunal, — the  Supreme  Court  of  Kentucky,— 
has  said : 

"  We  view  this  as  a  right  existing  by  positive  law  of  a  municipal 
character,  without  foundation  in  the  law  of  nature  or  the  unwritten  and 
common  law." — (Rankin  v.  Lydia,  2  Marshall,  470.) 

Of  course  every  power  to  uphold  Slavery  must  have  an  origin  as  distinct 
as  that  of  Slavery  itself.  Every  presumption  must  be  as  strong  against 


SLAVERY  NOT  IN  THE  PREAMBLE.          121 

such  a  power  as  against  Slavery.  A  power  so  peculiar  and  offensive — 
so  hostile  to  reason — so  repugnant  to  the  law  of  nature  and  the  inborn 
Rights  of  Man ;  which  despoils  its  victims  of  the  fruits  of  their  labor ; 
which  substitutes  concubinage  for  marriage ;  which  abrogates  the  rela 
tion  of  parent  and  child  ;  which,  by  a  denial  of  education,  abases  the 
intellect,  prevents  a  true  knowledge  of  God,  and  murders  the  very 
soul ;  which,  amidst  a  plausible  physical  comfort,  degrades  man,  created 
in  the  Divine  image,  to  the  level  of  a  beast ; — such  a  power,  so  eminent, 
so  transcendent,  so  tyrannical,  so  unjust,  can  find  no  place  in  any  sys 
tem  of  Government,  unless  by  virtue  of  positive  sanction.  It  can  spring 
from  no  doubtful  phrases.  It  must  be  declared  by  unambiguous  words, 
incapable  of  a  double  sense. 


VI. 

Slavery,  I 'now  repeat,  is  not  mentioned  in  the  Constitution.  The 
name  Slave  does  not  pollute  this  Charter  of  our  Liberties.  No  "posi 
tive"  language  gives  to  Congress  any  power  to  make  a  Slave  or  to  hunt 
a  Slave,  To  find  even  any  seeming  sanction  for  either,  we  must  travel, 
with  doubtful  footsteps,  beyond  its  express  letter,  into  the  region  of 
interpretation.  But  here  are  rules  which  cannot  be  disobeyed.  With 
electric  might  for  Freedom,  they  send  a  pervasive  influence  through 
every  provision,  clause,  and  word  of  the  Constitution.  Each  and  all 
make  Slavery  impossible  as  a  national  institution.  They  efface  from 
the  Constitution  every  fountain  out  of  which  it  can  be  derived. 

First  and  foremost,  is  the  Preamble.  This  discloses  the  prevailing 
objects  and  principles  of  the  Constitution.  This  is  the  vestibule  through 
which  all  must  pass,  who  would  enter  the  sacred  temple.  Here  are 
the  inscriptions  by  which  they  are  earliest  impressed.  Here  they  first 
catch  the  genius  of  the  place.  Here  the  proclamation  of  Liberty  is 
soonest  heard.  "We  the  People  of  the  United  States,"  says  the 
Preamble,  "  in  order  to  form  a  more  perfect  Union,  establish  justice^ 
insure  domestic  tranquillity,  provide  for  the  common  defence,  promote 
the  general  welfare,  and  secure  the  blessings  of  Liberty  to  ourselves  and 
our  posterity,  do  ordain  and  establish  this  Constitution  for  the  United 
States  of  America."  Thus,  according  to  undeniable  words,  the  Con 
stitution  was  ordained,  not  to  establish,  secure,  or  sanction  Slavery — 
not  to  promote  the  special  interests  of  slaveholders — not  to  make 
Slavery  national,  in  any  way,  form,  or  manner;  but  to  "  establish  jus- 


122  IT  SPEAKS  FOR  FREEDOM. 

tice,"  "  promote  the  general  welfare,"  and  "  secure  the  blessings  of 
Liberty."  Here,  surely,  Liberty  is  national. 

Secondly.  Next  in  importance  to  the  Preamble  are  the  explicit 
contemporaneous  declarations  in  the  Convention  which  framed  the 
Constitution,  and  elsewhere,  expressed  in  different  forms  of  language, 
but  all  tending  to  the  same  conclusion.  By  the  Preamble,  the  Con 
stitution  speaks  for  Freedom.  By  these  declarations,  the  Fathers  speak 
as  the  Constitution  speaks.  Early  in  the  Convention,  Gouverneur 
Morris,  of  Pennsylvania,  broke  forth  in  the  language  of  an  Abolition 
ist  :  "He  never  would  concur  in  upholding  domestic  slavery.  It  was  a 
nefarious  institution.  It  was  the  curse  of  Heaven  on  the  State  where 
it  prevailed."  Oliver  Ellsworth,  of  Connecticut,  said  :  "  The  morality 
or  wisdom  of  Slavery  are  considerations  belonging  to  the  States 
themselves."  According  to  him,  Slavery  was  sectional. 

At  a  later  day,  a  discussion  ensued  on  the  clause  touching  the 
African  slave  trade,  which  reveals  the  definitive  purposes  of  the  Con 
vention.  From  the  report  of  Mr.  Madison  we  learn  what  was  said. 
Elbridge  Gerry,  of  Massachusetts,  "  thought  we  had  nothing  to  do  with 
the  conduct  of  the  States  as  to  Slavery,  but  we  ought  to  be  careful  not 
to  give  any  sanction  to  it."  According  to  these  words,  he  regarded 
Slavery  as  sectional,  and  would  not  make  it  national.  Roger  Sherman, 
of  Connecticut,  "  was  opposed  to  any  tax  on  slaves  imported,  as  making 
the  matter  worse,  because  it  implied  they  were  property.  He  would 
not  have  Slavery  national.  After  debate,  the  subject  was  committed  to 
a  Committee  of  eleven,  who  subsequently  reported  a  substitute, 
authorizing  "  a  tax  on  such  migration  or  importation,  at  a  rate  not 
exceeding  the  average  of  duties  laid  on  imports"  This  language, 
classifying  persons  with  merchandise,  seemed  to  imply  a  recognition 
that  they  were  property.  Mr.  Sherman  at  once  declared  himself 
"  against  this  part,  as  acknowledging  men  to  be  property,  by  taxing  them 
as  such  under  the  character  of  slaves."  Mr.  Gorhani  "  thought  Mr. 
Sherman  should  consider  the  duty  not  as  implying  that  slaves  are 
property,  but  as  a  discouragement  to  the  importation  of  them."  Mr. 
Madison,  in  mild  juridical  phrase,  "thought  it  wrong  to  admit  in  the 
Constitution  the  idea  that  there  could  be  property  in  man."  After 
discussion  it  was  finally  agreed  to  make  the  clause  read  : 

"  But  a  tax  or  duty  may  be  imposed  on  such  inportation,  not  exceed 
ing  ten  dollars  for  each  person." 

The  difficulty  seemed  then  to  be  removed,  and  the  whole  clause  was 
adopted.  This  record  demonstrates  that  the  word  "persons"  was  em- 


SLAVERY   EXCLUDED   FROM   THE   CONSTITUTION.         123 

ployed  in  order  to  show  that  slaves,  everywhere  under  the  Constitution, 
were  always  to  be  regarded  as  persons,  and  not  ^property,  and  thus 
to  exclude  from  the  Constitution  all  idea  that  there  can  be  property  in 
man.  Remember  well,  that  Mr.  Sherman  was  opposed  to  the  clause  in 
its  original  form,  "  as  acknowledging  men  to  be  property  /"  that  Mr. 
Madison  was  also  opposed  to  it,  because  he  "  thought  it  wrong  to  admit 
in  the  Constitution  the  idea  that  there  could  be  property  in  man  ; "  and 
that,  after  these  objections,  the  clause  was  so  amended  as  to  exclude 
the  idea.  But  Slavery  cannot  be  national,  unless  this  idea  is  distinctly 
and  unequivocally  admitted  into  the  Constitution. 

But  the  evidence  still  accumulates.  At  a  still  later  day  in  the  pro 
ceedings  of  the  Convention,  as  if  to  set  the  seal  upon  the  solemn  deter 
mination  to  have  no  sanction  of  Slavery  in  the  Constitution,  the  word 
"servitude,"  which  appeared  in  the  clause  on  the  apportionment  of 
representation,  was  struck  out,  and  the  word  "  service  "  inserted.  This 
was  done  on  the  motion  of  Mr.  Randolph,  of  Virginia,  and  the  reason 
assigned  for  this  substitution,  according  to  Mr.  Madison,  in  his  authentic 
report  of  the  debate,  was  that  "  the  former  was  thought  to  express  the 
condition  of  slaves,  and  the  latter  the  obligations  of  free  persons" 
With  such  care  was  Slavery  excluded  from  the  Constitution. 

Nor  is  this  all.  In  the  Massachusetts  Convention,  to  which  the  Con 
stitution,  when  completed,  was  submitted  for  ratification,  a  veteran  of 
the  Revolution,  General  Heath,  openly  declared  that,  according  to  his 
view,  Slavery  was  sectional,  and  not  national.  His  language  wgs  pointed. 
"  I  apprehend,"  he  says,  "  that  it  is  not  in  our  power  to  do  anything  for 
or  against  those  who  are  in  Slavery  in  the  Southern  States.  J^"o  gentle 
man  within  these  walls  detests  every  idea  of  Slavery  more  than  I  do  ;  it 
is  generally  detested  by  people  of  this  Commonwealth;  and  I  ardently 
hope  the  time  will  soon  come,  when  our  brethren  in  the  Southern 
States  will  view  it  as  we  do,  and  put  a  stop  to  it ;  but  to  this  we  have 
no  right  to  compel  them.  Two  questions  naturally  arise  :  If  we  ratify 
the  Constitution,  shall  we  do  anything  by  our  acts  to  hold  the  blacks  in 
slavery — or  shall  we  become  partakers  in  other  men's  sins  ?  I  think 
neither  of  them" 

Afterwards,  in  the  first  Congress  under  the  Constitution,  on  a  motion 
which  was  much  debated,  to  introduce  into  the  Impost  Bill  a  duty  on 
the  importation  of  Slaves,  the  same  Roger  Sherman,  who  in  the  National 
Convention  had  opposed  the  idea  of  property  in  man,  authoritatively 
exposed  the  true  relations  of  the  Constitution  to  Slavery.  His  language 


124  THE   RIGHTS   OF   HUMAN   NATURE. 

was,  that  "The  Constitution  does  not  consider  these  persons  as  pro 
perty  ;  it  speaks  of  them  as  persons." 

Thus  distinctly  and  constantly,  from  the  very  lips  of  the  framers  of 
the  Constitution,  we  learn  the  falsehood  of  the  recent  assumptions  in 
favor  of  Slavery  and  in  derogation  of  Freedom. 

Thirdly.  According  to  a  familiar  rule  of  interpretation,  all  laws  con 
cerning  the  same  matter,  in  pari  materia,  are  to  be  construed  together. 
By  the  same  reason,  the  grand  political  acts  of  the  Nation  are  to  be  con 
strued  together,  giving  and  receiving  light  from  each  other.  Earlier 
than  the  Constitution  was  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  embodying, 
in  immortal  words,  those  primal  truths  to  which  our  country  pledged  itself 
with  its  baptismal  vows  as  a  Nation.  "  We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self- 
evident,"  says  the  Nation,  "  that  all  men  are  created  equal ;  that  they 
are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  unalienable  rights ;  that 
among  them  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  ;  that  to 
secure  these  rights  governments  are  instituted  among  men,  deriving  their 
just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed."  But  this  does  not 
stand  alone.  There  is  another  national  act  of  similar  import.  On  the 
successful  close  of  the  Revolution,  the  Continental  Congress,  in  an 
address  to  the  people,  repeated  the  same  lofty  truth.  "  Let  it  be  re 
membered,"  said  the  Nation  again,  "  that  it  has  ever  been  the  pride  and 
the  boast  of  America,  that  the  rights  for  which  she  has  contended  were 
the  rights  of  human  nature.  By  the  blessing  of  the  Author  of  these 
rights,  they  have  prevailed  over  all  opposition,  and  FORM  THE  BASIS  of 
thirteen  independent  States."  Such  were  the  acts  of  the  Nation  in  its 
united  capacity.  Whatever  may  be  the  privileges  of  States  in  their  in 
dividual  capacities,  within  their  several  local  jurisdictions,  no  power  can 
be  attributed  to  the  Nation,  in  the  absence  of  positive,  unequivocal 
grant,  inconsistent  with  these  two  national  declarations.  Here,  sir,  is 
the  national  heart,  the  national  soul,  the  national  will,  the  national 
voice,  which  must  inspire  our  interpretation  of  the  Constitution,  and 
enter  into  and  diffuse  itself  through  all  the  national  legislation.  Thus 
again  is  Freedom  national. 

Fourthly.  Beyond  these  is  a  principle  of  the  common  law,  clear 
and  indisputable,  a  supreme  rule  of  interpretation  from  which  in  this 
case  there  can  be  no  appeal.  In  any  question  under  the  Constitution 
every  word  is  to  be  construed  in  favor  of  liberty.  This  rule,  which  com 
mends  itself  to  the  natural  reason,  is  sustained  by  time-honored  maxims 
of  our  early  jurisprudence.  Blackstone  aptly  expresses  it,  when  he 
says,  that  "The  law  is  always  ready  to  catch  at  anything  in  favor  of 


FREEDOM    IS   NATIONAL.  1 25 

liberty."  The  rule  is  repeated  in  various  forms.  Favores  ampliandi 
sunt ;  odia  restringenda.  Favors  are  to  be  amplified;  hateful  things  to 
be  restrained.  Lex  Anglitz  est  lex  misericordi&.  The  law  of  England 
is  a  law  of  mercy.  Anglite  jura  in  omni  casu  libertati  dant  favorem. 
The  laws  of  P^ngland  in  every  case  show  favor  to  liberty.  And  this 
sentiment  breaks  forth  in  natural,  though  intense,  force,  in  the  maxim  : 
Impins  et  crudelis  judicandus  est  qui  libertati  non  favet.  He  is  to  be 
adjudged  impious  and  cruel  who  does  not  favor  liberty.  Reading  the 
Constitution  in  the  admonition  of  these  rules,  again  I  say  Freedom  is 
national. 

Fifthly.  From  a  learned  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  in  an  opinion  of  the  court,  we  derive  the  same  lesson.  In  con 
sidering  the  question,  whether  a  State  can  prohibit  the  importation  of 
slaves  as  merchandise,  and  whether  Congress,  in  the  exercise  of  its 
power  to  regulate  commerce  among  the  States,  can  interfere  with  the 
slave-trade  between  the  States,  a  principle  has  been  enunciated,  which, 
while  protecting  the  trade  from  any  intervention  of  Congress,  declares 
openly  that  the  Constitution  acts  upon  no  man  as  property.  Mr. 
Justice  McLean  says  :  "  If  slaves  are  considered  in  some  of  the  States 
as  merchandise,  that  cannot  divest  them  of  the  leading  and  controlling 
quality  of  persons  by  which  they  are  designated  in  the  Constitution. 
The  character  of  property  is  given  them  by  the  local  law.  This  law  is 
respected,  and  all  rights  under  it  are  protected  by  the  P'ederal  authori 
ties  ;  but  the  Constitution  acts  upon  slaves  as  PERSONS  a?id  not  as  pro 
perty.  *  *  *  "The  power  over  Slavery  belongs  to  the  States  re 
spectively.  It  is  local  in  its  character,  and  in  its  effects."  Here  again 
Slavery  is  sectional,  while  Freedom  is  national. 

Sir,  such,  briefly,  are  the  rules  of  interpretation  which,  as  applied  to 
the  Constitution,  fill  it  with  the  breath  of  Freedom, 

"  Driving  far  off  each  thing  of  sin  and  guilt." 

To  the  history  and  prevailing  sentiments  of  the  times  we  may  turn  for 
further  assurance.  In  the  spirit  of  Freedom  the  Constitution  was 
formed.  In  this  spirit  our  Fathers  always  spoke  and  acted.  In  this 
spirit  the  National  Government  was  first  organized  under  Washington. 
And  here  I  recall  a  scene,  in  itself  a  touchstone  of  the  period,  and  an 
example  for  us,  upon  which  we  may  look  with  pure  national  pride, 
while  we  learn  anew  the  relations  of  the  National  Government  to 
Slavery. 

The  Revolution  had  been  accomplished.     The  feeble  Government 


126  WASHINGTON   INAUGURATED   APRIL   30,    1789. 

of  the  Confederation  had  passed  away.  The  Constitution,  slowly  ma 
tured  in  a  National  Convention,  discussed  before  the  people,  defended 
by  masterly  pens,  had  been  already  adopted.  The  thirteen  States 
stood  forth  a  nation,  wherein  was  unity  without  consolidation,  and 
diversity  without  discord.  The  hopes  of  all  were  anxiously  hanging 
upon  the  new  order  of  things  and  the  mighty  procession  of  events. 

VII. 

With  signal  unanimity  Washington  was  chosen  President.  Leaving 
his  home  at  Mount  Vernon,  he  repaired  to  New  York, — where  the  first 
Congress  had  already  commenced  its  session, — to  assume  his  place  as 
elected  Chief  of  the  Republic.  On  the  thirtieth  of  April,  1789,  the 
organization  of  the  Government  was  completed  by  his  inauguration. 
Entering  the  Senate  Chamber,  where  the  two  Houses  were  assembled, 
he  was  informed  that  they  awaited  his  readiness  to  receive  the  oath 
of  office.  Without  delay,  attended  by  the  Senators  and  Representa 
tives,  with  friends  and  men  of  mark  gathered  about  him,  he  moved  to 
the  balcony  in  front  of  the  edifice.  A  countless  multitude,  thronging 
the  open  street,  and  eagerly  watching  this  great  espousal, 

"  With  reverence  look  on  his  majestic  face, 
Proud  to  be  less,  but  of  his  god-like  race." 

The  oath  was  administered  by  the  Chancellor  of  New  York.  At  this 
time,  and  in  this  presence,  beneath  the  uncovered  heavens,  Washing 
ton  first  took  this  vow  upon  his  lips  :  "I  do  solemnly  swear  that  I  will 
faithfully  execute  the  office  of  President  of  the  United  States,  and  will 
to  the  best  of  my  ability,  preserve,  protect  and  defend  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States." 

Over  the  President,  on  this  high  occasion,  floated  the  national  flag, 
with  its  stripes  of  red,  and  its  stars  on  a  field  of  blue.  As  his  patriot 
eyes  rested  upon  the  glowing  ensign,  what  currents  must  have  rushed 
swiftly  through  his  soul !  In  the  early  days  of  the  Revolution,  in  those 
darkest  hours  about  Boston,  after  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  and  before 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  the  thirteen  stripes  had  been  first  un 
furled  by  him,  as  the  emblem  of  Union  among  the  Colonies  for  the  sake 
of  Freedom.  By  him,  at  that  time,  they  had  been  named  the  Union 
Flag.  Trial,  struggle,  and  war  were  now  ended,  and  the  Union,  which 
they  first  heralded,  was  unalterably  established.  To  every  beholder, 
these  memories  must  have  been  full  of  pride  and  consolation.  But  look- 


NOT  A   SLAVE   UNDER  THE  NATIONAL  FLAG.  \2J 

ing  back  upon  the  scene,  there  is  one  circumstance  which,  more  than 
all  its  other  associations,  fills  the  soul  ;  more  even  than  the  suggestions 
of  Union,  which  I  prize  so  much.  AT  THIS  MOMENT,  WHEN  WASHING- 

TON    TOOK    HIS    FIRST    OATH    TO     SUPPORT    THE     CONSTITUTION    OF   THE 

UNITED  STATES,  THE  NATIONAL  ENSIGN,  NOWHERE  WITHIN  THE 
NATIONAL  TERRITORY,  COVERED  A  SINGLE  SLAVE.  Then,  indeed,  was 
Slavery  sectional,  and  Freedom  national. 

On  the  sea,  an  execrable  piracy,  the  trade  in  slaves,  was  still,  to  the 
national  scandal,  tolerated  under  the  national  flag.  In  the  States,  as  a 
sectional  institution,  beneath  the  shelter  of  local  laws,  Slavery  unhappily 
found  a  home.  But  in  the  only  territories  at  this  time  belonging  to  the 
nation,  the  broad  region  of  the  North-west,  it  had  already,  by  the 
Ordinance  of  Freedom,  been  made  impossible,  even  before  the  adop 
tion  of  the  Constitution.  The  District  of  Columbia,  with  its  fatal  in- 
cumbrance,  had  not  yet  been  acquired. 

The  Government  thus  organized  was  Anti-Slavery  in  character. 
Washington  was  a  slave-holder ;  but  it  would  be  unjust  to  his  memory 
not  to  say  that  he  was  an  Abolitionist  also.  His  opinions  do  not  admit 
of  question.  Only  a  short  time  before  the  formation  of  the  National 
Constitution,  he  had  declared,  by  letter,  "  That  it  was  among  his  first 
wishes  to  see  some  plan  adopted,  by  which  Slavery  may  be  abolished  by 
law  ;  "  and  again,  in  another  letter,  "  That,  in  support  of  any  legislative 
measure  for  the  abolition  of  slavery,  his  suffrage  should  not  be  want 
ing  ; "  and  still  further,  in  conversation  with  a  distinguished  European 
Abolitionist,  a  travelling  propagandist  of  Freedom,  Brissot  de  Warville, 
recently  welcomed  to  Mount  Vernon,  he  had  openly  announced,  that 
to  promote  this  object  in  Virginia,  "  He  desired  the  formation  of  a 
SOCIETY,  and  that  he  would  second  it."  By  this  authentic  testimony, 
he  takes  his  place  with  the  early  patrons  of  Abolition  Societies. 


VIII. 

By  the  side  of  Washington,  as  standing  beneath  the  national  flag  he 
swore  to  support  the  Constitution,  were  illustrious  men,  whose  lives 
and  recorded  words  now  rise  in  judgment.  There  was  John  Adams, 
the  Vice-President — great  vindicator  and  final  negotiator  of  our  national 
independence — whose  soul,  flaming  with  freedom,  broke  forth  in  the 
early  declaration,  that  "  Consenting  to  Slavery  is  a  sacrilegious  breach 
of  trust,"  and  whose  immitigable  hostility  to  this  wrong  has  been  made 


128  JEFFERSON   ALWAYS   DENOUNCED    SLAVERY. 

immortal  in  his  descendants.  There  also  was  a  companion  in  arms,  and 
attached  friend  of  incomparable  genius,  the  yet  youthful  Hamilton, 
who,  as  a  member  of  the  Abolition  Society  of  New  York,  had  only 
recently  united  in  a  solemn  petition  for  those  who,  "  though  free  by  f/ie 
laws  of  God,  are  held  in  Slavery  by  the  laws  of  the  State.1'  There,  too, 
was  a  noble  spirit,  the  ornament  of  his  country,  the  exemplar  of  truth 
and  virtue,  who,  like  the  sun,  ever  held  an  unerring  course,  John  Jay. 
Filling  the  important  post  of  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  under  the  Con 
federation,  he  found  time  to  organize  the  Abolition  Society  of  New 
York,  and  to  act  as  its  President,  until,  by  the  nomination  of  Washing 
ton,  he  became  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States.  In  his  sight, 
Slavery  was  an  "iniquity,"  "  a  sin  of  crimson  dye,"  against  which  minis 
ters  of  the  gospel  should  testify,  and  which  the  Government  should  seek 
in  every  way  to  abolish.  "  Were  I  in  the  Legislature,"  he  wrote,  "  I 
would  present  a  bill  for  this  purpose  with  great  care,  and  I  would  never 
cease  moving  it  till  it  became  a  law,  or  I  ceased  to  be  a  member.  Till 
America  comes  into  this  measure,  her  prayers  to  heaven  will  be  im 
pious." 

But  they  were  not  alone.  The  convictions  and  earnest  aspirations 
of  the  country  were  with  them.  At  the  North  these  were  broad  and 
general.  At  the  South  they  found  fervid  utterance  from  slaveholders. 
By  early  and  precocious  efforts  for  "  total  emancipation,"  the  author  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  placed  himself  foremost  among  the 
Abolitionists  of  the  land.  In  language  now  familiar  to  all,  and  which 
can  never  die,  he  perpetually  denounced  Slavery.  He  exposed  its  per 
nicious  influences  upon  master  as  well  as  slave;  declared  that  the- love 
of  justice  and  the  love  of  country  pleaded  equally  for  the  slave,  and 
that  the  "abolition  of  domestic  slavery  was  the  greatest  object  of  desire." 
He  believed  that  the  "sacred  side  was  gaining  daily  recruits,"  and  confi 
dently  looked  to  the  young  for  the  accomplishment  of  this  good  work. 
In  fitful  sympathy  with  Jefferson,  was  another  honored  son  of  Virginia,  the 
Orator  of  Liberty,  Patrick  Henry,  who,  while  confessing  that  he  was  a 
master  of  slaves,  said  :  "  I  will  not,  I  cannot  justify  it.  However  cul 
pable  my  conduct,  I  will  so  far  pay  my  devoir  to  virtue,  as  to  own  the 
excellence  and  rectitude  of  her  precepts,  and  lament  my  want  of  con 
formity  to  them."  At  this  very  period,  in  the  Legislature  of  Maryland, 
on  a  bill  for  the  relief  of  oppressed  slaves,  a  young  man,  afterwards  by 
his  consummate  learning  and  forensic  powers,  the  acknowledged  head 
of  the  American  bar,  William  Pinckney,  in  a  speech  of  earnest,  truthful 
eloquence — better  far  for  his  memory  than  his  transcendent  professional 


ALL   THE   CHURCHES   OPPOSED   TO    SLAVERY.  129 

fame — branded  Slavery  as  "  iniquitous  and  most  dishonorable  ; "  "  found 
ed  in  a  disgraceful  traffic  ; "  "  as  shameful  in  its  continuance  as  in  its 
origin  ; "  and  he  openly  declared,  that,  "  By  the  eternal  principles  of 
natural  justice,  no  master  in  the  State  has  a  right  to  hold  his  slave  in 
bondage  a  single  hour." 

IX. 

Thus  at  this  time  spoke  the -NATION.  The  CHURCH  also  joined  its 
voice.  And  here,  amidst  the  diversities  of  religious  faith,  it  is  instruc 
tive  to  observe  the  general  accord.  The  Quakers  first  bore  their  testi 
mony.  At  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  the  whole  body,  under  the 
early  teaching  of  George  Fox,  and  by  the  crowning  exertions  of  Benezet 
and  Wolman,  had  become  an  organized  band  of  Abolitionists,  pene 
trated  by  the  conviction  that  it  was  unlawful  to  hold  a  fellow-man  in 
bondage.  The  Methodists,  numerous,  earnest  and  faithful,  never  ceased 
by  their  preachers  to  proclaim  the  same  truth.  Their  rules  in  1788 
denounced,  in  formal  language,  "  the  buying  or  selling  of  bodies  and 
souls  of  men,  women,  and  children,  with  an  intention  to  enslave  them." 
The  words  of  their  great  apostle,  John  Wesley,  were  constantly  repeated. 
On  the  eve  of  the  National  Convention  the  burning  tract  was  circulated, 
in  which  he  exposes  American  slavery  as  the  "vilest"  of  the  world — 
"  such  Slavery  as  is  not  found  among  the  Turks  at  Algiers  ; "  and,  after 
declaring  "  Liberty  the  birthright  of  every  human  creature,  of  which  no 
human  law  can  deprive  him,"  he  pleads,  "  If,  therefore,  you  have  any 
regard  to  justice  (to  say  nothing  of  mercy  or  the  revealed  law  of  God), 
render  unto  all  their  due.  Give  liberty  to  whom  liberty  is  due,  that  is, 
to  every  child  of  man,  to  every  partaker  of  human  nature."  At  the 
same  time,  the  Presbyterians,  a  powerful  religious  body,  inspired  by  the 
principles  of  John  Calvin,  in  more  moderate  language,  but  by  a  public 
act,  recorded  their  judgment,  recommending  "  to  all  the  people  under 
their  care  to  use  the  most  prudent  measures  consistent  with  the  interest 
and  the  state  of  civil  society,  to  procure  eventually  the  final  abolition  of 
Slavery  in  America"  The  Congregationalists  of  New  England,  also- 
of  the  faith  of  John  Calvin,  and  with  the  hatred  of  Slavery  belonging  to 
the  great  non-conformist,  Richard  Baxter,  were  sternly  united  against 
this  wrong.  As  early  as  1776,  Samuel  Hopkins,  their  eminent  leader 
and  divine,  published  his  tract,  showing  it  to  be  the  Duty  and  Interest 
of  the  American  States  to  emancipate  all  their  African  slaves,  and  de 
claring  that  "  Slavery  is  in  every  instance  wrong,  unrighteous  and  op- 
9 


I3O  LITERATURE  THE   FOE-  OF   SLAVERY. 

pressive — a  very  great  and  crying  sin — there  being  nothing  of  the  kind 
equal  to  it  on  the  face  of  the  earth."  And,  in  1791,  shortly  after  the 
adoption  of  the  Constitution,  the  second  Jonathan  Edwards,  a  twice- 
honored  name,  in  an  elaborate  discourse  often  published,  called  upon 
his  country,  "in  the  present  blaze  of  light"  on  the  injustice  of  slavery, 
to  prepare  the  way  for  "its  total  abolition."  This  he  gladly  thought  at 
hand.  "  If  we  judge  of  the  future  by  the  past,"  said  the  celebrated 
preacher,  "  within  fifty  years  from  this  time,  it  will  be  as  shameful  for  a 
man  to  hold  a  negro  slave,  as  to  be  guilty  of  common  robbery,  or 
theft." 

Thus,  at  this  time,  the  Church,  in  harmony  with  the  Nation,  by  its 
leading  denominations,  Quakers,  Methodists,  Presbyterians  and  Con- 
gregationalists,  thundered  against  Slavery.  The  COLLEGES  were  in 
unison  with  the  Church.  Harvard  University  spoke  by  the  voice  of 
Massachusetts,  which  had  already  abolished  Slavery.  Dartmouth  Col 
lege,  by  one  of  its  learned  Professors,  claimed  for  the  slaves  "  equal 
privileges  with  the  whites."  Yale  College,  by  its  President,  the  emi- 
jient  divine,  Ezra  Stiles,  became  the  head  of  the  Abolition  Society  of 
Connecticut.  And  the  University  of  William  and  Mary,  in  Virginia, 
testified  its  sympathy  with  this  cause  at  this  very  time,  by  conferring 
:upon  Granville  Sharpe,  the  acknowledged  chief  of  British  Abolitionists, 
ithe  honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws. 

X. 

The  LITERATURE  of  the  land,  such  as  then  existed,  agreed  with  the 
"Nation,  the  Church,  and  the  College.  Franklin,  in  the  last  literary 
labor  of  his  life  ;  Jefferson,  in  his  Notes  on  Virginia ;  Barlow,  in  his 
measured  verse  ;  Rush,  in  a  work  which  inspired  the  praise  of  Clark- 
son  ;  the  ingenious  author  of  the  Algerine  Captive — the  earliest  Amer 
ican  novel,  and  though  now  but  little  known,  one  of  the  earliest  Amer 
ican  books  republished  in  London — were  all  moved  by  the  contempla 
tion  of  Slavery.  "If  our  fellow-citizens  of  the  Southern  States  are 
-deaf  to  the  pleadings  of  nature,"  the  latter  exclaims  in  his  work,  "  I 
will  conjure  them,  for  the  sake  of  consistency,  to  cease  to  deprive  their 
fellow-creatures  of  freedom,  which  their  writers,  their  orators,  repre 
sentatives  and  senators,  and  even  their  Constitution  of  Government, 
have  declared  to  be  the  inalienable  birthright  of  man."  A  female 
writer  and  poet,  earliest  in  our  country  among  the  graceful  throng, 
.Sarah  Wentworth  Morton,  at  the  very  period  of  the  National  Conven- 


FRANKLIN'S  ABOLITION  SOCIETY.  131 

tion  admired  by  the  polite  society  in  which  she  lived,  poured  forth  her 
sympathies  also.  The  generous  labors  of  John  Jay  in  behalf  of  the 
crushed  African  inspired  her  muse  ;  and,  in  another  poem,  commemo 
rating  a  slave,  who  fell  while  vindicating  his  freedom,  she  rendered  a 
truthful  homage  to  his  inalienable  rights,  in  words  which  I  now  quote 
as  part  of  the  testimony  of  the  times  : 

"  Does  not  the  voice  of  reason  cry, 

*  Claim  the  first  right  that  Nature  gave ; 
From  the  red  scourge  of  bondage  fly, 
Nor  deign  to  live  a  burdened  slave.'  " 

Such,  sir,  at  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  and  at  the  first  organi 
zation  of  the  National  Government,  was  the  outspoken,  unequivocal 
heart  of  the  country.  Slavery  was  abhorred.  Like  the  slave  trade,  it 
was  regarded  as  transitory ;  and,  by  many,  it  was  supposed  that  they 
would  both  disappear  together.  As  the  oracles  grew  mute  at  the  com 
ing  of  Christ,  and  a  voice  was  heard,  crying  to  mariners  at  sea,  "  Great 
Pan  is  dead,"  so  at  this  time  Slavery  became  dumb,  and  its  death  seemed 
to  be  near.  Voices  of  Freedom  filled  the  air.  The  patriot,  the  Chris 
tian,  the  scholar,  the  writer,  the  poet,  vied  in  loyalty  to  this  cause.  All 
were  Abolitionists. 

XL 

Glance  .now  at  the  earliest  Congress  under  the  Constitution.  From 
various  quarters  came  memorials  to  this  body  against  Slavery.  Among 
these  was  one  from  the  Abolition  Society  of  Virginia,  wherein  Slavery 
is  pronounced  "not  only  an  odious  degradation,  but  an  outrageous 
violation  of  one  of  the  most  essential  rights  of  human  nature,  and  ut 
terly  repugnant  to  the  precepts  of  the  Gospel."  Still  another,  of  a 
more  important  character,  proceeded  from  the  Abolition  Society  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  was  signed  by  Benjamin  Franklin,  as  President* 
This  venerable  man,  whose  active  life  had  been  devoted  to  the  welfare 
of  mankind  at  home  and  abroad — who,  both  as  philosopher  and  states 
man,  had  arrested  the  admiration  of  the  world — who  had  ravished  the 
lightning  from  the  skies  and  the  sceptre  from  the  tyrant — who,  as  a 
member  of  the  Continental  Congress,  had  set  his  name  to  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence,  and,  as  a  member  of  the  National  Convention, 
had  again  set  his  name  to  the  Constitution — in  whom  more,  perhaps, 
than  in  any  other  person,  was  embodied  the  true  spirit  of  American 


132  FRANKLINS   PRAYER   TO   CONGRESS. 

institutions,  at  once  practical  and  humane — than  whom  no  one  could 
be  more  familiar  with  the  purposes  and  aspirations  of  the  founders — 
this  veteran,  eighty-four  years  of  age,  within  a  few  months  of  his  death, 
now  appeared  by  petition  at  the  bar  of  that  Congress,  whose  powers  he 
had  helped  to  define  and  establish.  This  was  the  last  political  act  of 
his  long  life.  Listen  to  the  prayer  of  Franklin  : 

"Your  memorialists,  particularly  engaged  in  attending  to  the  distresses 
arising  from  Slavery,  believe  it  to  be  their  indispensable  duty  to  present 
this  subject  to  your  notice.  They  have  observed  with  real  satisfaction 
that  many  important  and  salutary  powers  are  vested  in  you  for  promot 
ing  the  welfare  and  securing  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  the  people  of  the 
United  States  ;  and  as  they  conceive  that  these  blessings  ought  right 
fully  to  be  administered,  without  distinction  of  color  to  all  descriptions  of 
people,  so  they  indulge  themselves  in  the  pleasing  expectation,  that  nothing 
which  can  be  done  for  the  relief  of  the  unhappy  objects  of  their  care,  will 
be  either  omitted  or  delayed."  "  Under  these  impressions,  they  earnestly 
entreat  your  serious  attention  to  the  subject  of  Slavery;  that  you  would 
be  pleased  to  countenance  the  restoration  of  liberty  to  those  unhappy  men, 
who  alone,  in  this  land  of  Freedom,  are  degraded  into  perpetual  bondage, 
and  who,  amidst  the  general  joy  of  surrounding  freemen,  are  groaning  in 
servile  subjection;  that  you  will  promote  mercy  and  justice  towards  this 
distressed  race,  and  that  you  will  step  to  the  very  verge  of  the  power 
vested  in  you  for  DISCOURAGING  every  species  of  traffic  in  the 
persons  of  our  fellow-men" 

Important  words  !  in  themselves  a  key-note  of  the  times.  From  his 
grave  Franklin  seems  still  to  call  upon  Congress  to  step  to  the  very  verge 
of  the  powers  vested  in  it  to  DISCOURAGE  SLAVERY  ;  and,  in  making  this 
prayer,  he  proclaims  the  true  national  policy  of  the  Fathers.  Not  en 
couragement  but  discouragement  of  Slavery  was  their  rule. 

Sir,  enough  has  been  said  to  show  the  sentiment  which,  like  a  vital 
air,  surrounded  the  National  Government  as  it  stepped  into  being.  In 
the  face  of  this  history,  and  in  the  absence  of  any  positive  sanction,  it  is 
absurd  to  suppose  that  Slavery,  which  under  the  Confederation  was 
merely  sectional,  was  now  constituted  a  national  institution.  Our 
fathers  did  not  say  with  the  apostate  angel,  "  Evil  be  thou  my  good  !  " 
In  a  different  spirit  they  cried  out  to  Slavery,  "  Get  thee  behind  me, 
Satan!" 

But  there  is  yet  another  link  in  the  argument.  In  the  discussions 
which  took  place  in  the  local  conventions  on  the  adoption  of  the  Con 
stitution,  a  sensitive  desire  was  manifested  to  surround  all  persons 
under  the  Constitution  with  additional  safeguards.  Fears  were  ex 
pressed,  from  the  supposed  indefiniteness  of  some  of  the  powers  con- 


PREROGATIVES   OF  THE    CONSTITUTION.  133 

ceded  to  the  National  Government,  and  also  from  the  absence  of  a 
Bill  of  Rights.  Massachusetts,  on  ratifying  the  Constitution,  proposed 
a  series  of  amendments,  at  the  head  of  which  was  this,  characterized 
by  Samuel  Adams,  in  the  Convention,  as  "A  summary  of  a  Bill  of 
Rights:" 

"  That  it  be  explicitly  declared,  that  all  powers  not  expressly  dele 
gated  by  the  aforesaid  Constitution  are  reserved  to  the  several  States, 
to  be  by  them  exercised." 

Virginia,  South  Carolina,  and  North  Carolina,  with  minorities  in 
Pennsylvania  and  Maryland,  united  in  this  proposition.  In  pursuance 
of  these  recommendations,  the  first  Congress  presented  for  adoption 
the  following  article,  which,  being  ratified  by  a  proper  number  of  States, 
became  part  of  the  Constitution,  as  the  loth  amendment : 

"  The  powers  not  delegated  to  the  United  States  by  the  Constitution, 
nor  prohibited  by  it  to  the  States,  are  reserved  to  the  States  respectively, 
or  to  the  people." 

Stronger  words  could  not  be  employed  to  limit  the  power  under  the 
Constitution,  and  to  protect  the  people  from  all  assumptions  of  the 
National  Government,  particularly  in  derogation  of  Freedom.  Its 
guardian  character  commended  it  to  the  sagacious  mind  of  Jefferson, 
who  said  :  "  I  consider  the  foundation  corner-stone  of  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  to  be  laid  upon  the  tenth  article  of  the  amend-' 
ments."  And  Samuel  Adams,  ever  watchful  for  Freedom,  said :  "  It 
removes  a  doubt  which  many  have  entertained  respecting  the  matter, 
gives  assurance  that,  if  any  law  made  by  the  Federal  Government  shall 
be  extended  beyond  the  power  granted  by  the  Constitution,  and  incon 
sistent  with  the  Constitution  of  this  State,  it  will  be  an  error,  and  ad 
judged  by  the  courts  of  law  to  be  void." 

Beyond  all  question,  the  National  Government,  ordained  by  the 
Constitution,  is  not  general  or  universal ;  but  special  and  particular. 
It  is  a  Government  of  limited  powers.  It  has  no  power  which  is  not 
delegated.  Especially  is  this  clear  with  regard  to  an  institution  like 
Slavery.  The  Constitution  contains  no  power  to  make  a  King  or  to 
support  kingly  rule.  With  similar  reason  it  may  be  said,  that  it  con 
tains  no  power  to  make  a  slave,  or  to  support  a  system  of  Slavery. 
The  absence  of  all  such  power  is  hardly  more  clear  in  one  case  than  in 
the  other.  But  if  there  be  no  such  power,  all  national  legislation  up 
holding  Slavery  must  be  unconstitutional  and  void.  The  stream  cannot 
be  higher  than  the  fountain-head.  Nay  more,  nothing  can  come  out  of 


134  PERSONS  ARE  NOT  PROPERTY. 

nothing  ;  the  stream  cannot  exist,  if  there  be  no  springs  from  which  it 
is  fed. 

At  the  risk  of  repetition,  but  for  the  sake  of  clearness,  review  now 
this  argument,  and  gather  it  together.  Considering  that  Slavery  is  of 
such  an  offensive  character  that  it  can  find  sanction  only  in  "  positive 
law,"  and  that  it  has  no  such  "  positive  "  sanction  in  the  Constitution  ; 
that  the  Constitution,  according  to  its  Preamble,  was  ordained  "  to 
establish  justice"  and  "secure  the  blessings  of  liberty;"  that,  in  the 
Convention  which  framed  it,  and  also  elsewhere  at  the  time,  it  was 
declared  not  to  sanction  Slavery ;  that,  according  to  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  and  the  Address  of  the  Continental  Congress,  the 
Nation  was  dedicated  to  "liberty"  and  the  "rights  of  human  nature;" 
that,  according  to  the  principles  of  the  common  law,  the  Constitution 
must  be  interpreted  openly,  actively,  and  perpetually,  for  Freedom  ; 
that,  according  to  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court,  it  acts  upon 
slaves,  not  as  property,  but  as  PERSONS  ;  that,  at  the  first  organization 
of  the  National  Government  under  Washington,  Slavery  had  no  na 
tional  favor,  existed  nowhere  on  the  national  territory,  beneath  the 
national  flag,  but  was  openly  condemned  by  the  Nation,  the  Church, 
the  Colleges  and  Literature  of  the  time ;  and,  finally,  that  according  to 
an  Amendment  of  the  Constitution,  the  National  Government  can  only 
exercise  powers  delegated  to  it,  among  which  there  is  none  to  support 
Slavery ;  considering  these  things,  sir,  it  is  impossible  to  avoid  the 
single  conclusion  that  Slavery  is  in  no  respect  a  national  institution, 
and  that  the  Constitution  nowhere  upholds  property  in  man. 

XII. 

But  there  is  one  other  special  provision  of  the  Constitution,  which  I 
have  reserved  to  this  stage,  not  so  much  from  its  superior  importance, 
but  because  it  may  fitly  stand  by  itself.  This  alone,  if  practically  ap 
plied,  would  carry  Freedom  to  all  within  its  influence.  It  is  an  amend 
ment  proposed  by  the  first  Congress,  as  follows : 

"  No  perso?i  shall  be  deprived  of  life,  liberty  or  property,  without  due 
process  of  law" 

Under  this  aegis  the  liberty  of  every  person  within  the  national  jurisdic 
tion  is  unequivocally  placed.  I  say  every  person.  Of  this  there  can 
be  no  question.  The  word  "  person "  in  the  Constitution  embraces 
every  human  being  within  its  sphere,  whether  Caucasian,  Indian,  or 


THE    CONSTITUTION    CANNOT  SUPPORT   SLAVERY.         135 

African,  from  the  President  to  the  slave.  Show  me  a  person,  no  matter 
what  his  condition,  or  race,  or  color,  within  the  national  jurisdiction, 
and  I  confidently  claim  for  him  this  protection.  The  natural  meaning 
of  the  clause  is  clear,  but  a  single  fact  of  its  history  places  it  in  the 
broad  light  of  noon.  As  originally  recommended  by  North  Caro 
lina  and  Virginia,  it  was  restrained  to  the  freeman.  Its  language  was, 
"  No  freeman  ought  to  be  deprived  of  his  life,  liberty  or  property,  but 
by  the  law  of  the  land."  In  rejecting  this  limitation,  the  authors  of  the 
amendment  revealed  their  purpose,  that  no  person,  under  the  National 
Government,  of  whatever  character,  shall  be  deprived  of  liberty  without 
due  process  of  law ;  that  is,  without  due  presentment,  indictment,  or 
other  judicial  proceedings.  Here  by  this  Amendment  is  an  express 
guarantee  of  Personal  Liberty,  and  an  express  prohibition  against  its 
invasion  anywhere,  at  least  within  the  national  jurisdiction. 

Sir,  apply  these  principles,  and  Slavery  will  again  be  as  when  Wash 
ington  took  his  first  oath  as  President.  The  Union  Flag  of  the  Re 
public  will  become  once  more  the  flag  of  Freedom,  and  at  all  points 
within  the  national  jurisdiction  will  refuse  to  cover  a  slave.  Beneath 
its  beneficent  folds,  wherever  it  is  carried,  on  land  or  sea,  Slavery  will 
disappear,  like  darkness  under  the  arrows  of  the  ascending  sun — like 
the  Spirit  of  Evil  before  the  Angel  of  the  Lord. 

In  all  national  territories  Slavery  will  be  impossible. 

On  the  high  seas,  under  the  national  flag,  Slavery  will  be  impossible. 

In  the  District  of  Columbia  Slavery  will  instantly  cease. 

Inspired  by  these  principles,  Congress  can  give  no  sanction  to  Slavery 
by  the  admission  of  new  Slave  States. 

Nowhere  under  the  Constitution,  can  the  Nation,  by  legislation  or 
otherwise,  support  Slavery,  hunt  slaves,  or  hold  property  in  man. 

Such,  sir,  are  my  sincere  convictions.  According  to  the  Constitution, 
as  I  understand  it,  in  the  light  of  the  Past  and  of  its  true  principles, 
there  is  no  other  conclusion  which  is  rational  or  tenable ;  which  does 
not  defy  the  authoritative  rules  of  interpretation ;  which  does  not  falsify 
indisputable  facts  of  history  ;  which  does  not  affront  the  public  opin 
ion  in  which  it  had  its  birth  ;  and  which  does  not  dishonor  the  memory 
of  the  Fathers.  And  yet  these  convictions  are  now  placed  under 
formal  ban  by  politicians  of  the  hour.  The  generous  sentiments 
which  filled  the  early  patriots,  and  which  impressed  upon  the 
Government  they  founded,  as  upon  the  coin  they  circulated,  the  image 
and  superscription  of  LIBERTY,  have  lost  their  power.  The  slave 
masters,  few  in  number,  amounting  to  not  more  than  three  hundred 


136  SURRENDER   OF   FUGITIVE   SLAVES. 

and  fifty  thousand,  according  to  the  recent  census,  have  succeeded  in- 
dictating  the  policy  of  the  National  Government,  and  have  written 
SLAVERY  on  its  front.  And  now  an  arrogant  and  unrelenting  ostracism 
is  applied,  not  only  to  all  who  express  themselves  against  Slavery,  but 
to  every  man  who  is  unwilling  to  be  the  menial  of  Slavery.  A  novel 
test  for  office  is  introduced,  which  would  have  excluded  all  the  Fathers  of 
the  Republic — even  Washington,  Jefferson  and  Franklin  !  Yes,  sir. 
Startling  it  may  be,  but  indisputable.  Could  these  revered  demigods  of 
history  once  again  descend  upon  earth  and  mingle  in  our  affairs,  not  one  of 
them  could  receive  a  nomination  from  the  National  Convention  of  either 
of  the  two  old  political  parties  !  Out  of  the  convictions  of  their  hearts 
and  the  utterances  of  their  lips  against  Slavery  they  would  be  condemned. 


XIII. 

II.  From  this  general  review  of  the  relations  of  the  National  Govern 
ment  to  Slavery,  I  pass  to  the  consideration  of  the  TRUE  NATURE  OF 

THE  PROVISION  FOR  THE  SURRENDER  OF  FUGITIVES  FROM  SERVICE,  em 
bracing  an  examination  of  this  provision  in  the  Constitution,  and 
especially  of  the  recent  act  of  Congress  in  pursuance  thereof.  And 
here,  as  I  begin  this  discussion,  let  me  bespeak  anew  your  candor. 
Not  in  prejudice,  but  in  the  light  of  history  and  of  reason,  let  us  con 
sider  the  subject.  The  way  will  then  be  easy  and  the  conclusion  cer 
tain. 

Much  error  arises  from  the  exaggerated  importance  now  attached  to 
this  provision,  and  from  the  assumptions  with  regard  to  its  origin  and 
primitive  character.  It  is  often  asserted  that  it  was  suggested  by  some 
special  difficulty,  which  had  become  practically  and  extensively  felt, 
anterior  to  the  Constitution.  But  this  is  one  of  the  myths  or  fables 
with  which  the  supporters  of  Slavery  have  surrounded  their  false  god. 
In  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  while  provision  is  made  for  the  sur 
render  of  fugitive  criminals,  nothing  is  said  of  fugitive  slaves  or  ser 
vants  ;  and  there  is  no  evidence  in  any  quarter,  until  after  the  National 
Convention,  of  any  hardship  or  solicitude  on  this  account.  No  previous 
voice  was  heard  to  express  desire  for  any  provision  on  the  subject. 
The  story  to  the  contrary  is  a  modern  fiction. 

I  put  aside  as  equally  fabulous  the  common  saying  that  this  provision 
was  one  of  the  original  compromises  of  the  Constitution,  and  an  essen- 
ual  condition  of  Union.  Though  sanctioned  by  eminent  judicial 


THE   FIRST   HATEFUL    COMPROMISE.  137 

opinions,  it  will  be  found  that  this  statement  has  been  hastily  made, 
without  any  support  in  the  records  of  the  Convention,  the  only  authen 
tic  evidence  of  the  compromises ;  nor  will  it  be  easy  to  find  any  author 
ity  for  it  in  any  contemporary  document,  speech,  published  letter  or 
pamphlet  of  any  kind.  It  is  true  that  there  were  compromises  at  the 
formation  of  the  Constitution,  which  were  the  subject  of  anxious  debate  ; 
but  this  was  not  of  them. 

There  was  a  compromise  between  the  small  and  large  States,  by 
which  equality  was  secured  to  all  the  States  in  the  Senate.  There  was 
another  compromise  finally  carried,  under  threats  from  the  South,  on 
the  motion  of  a  New  England  member,  by  which  the  Slave  States  were 
allowed  Representatives  according  to  the  whole  number  of  free  persons, 
and  "  three-fifths  of  all  other  persons,"  thus  securing  political  power  on 
account  of  their  slaves,  in  consideration  that  direct  taxes  should  be  ap 
portioned  in  the  same  way.  Direct  taxes  have  been  imposed  at  only 
four  brief  intervals.  The  political  power  has  been  constant,  and,  at 
this  moment,  sends  twenty-one  members  to  the  other  House. 

There  was  a  third  compromise,  which  cannot  be  mentioned  without 
shame.  It  was  that  hateful  bargain  by  which  Congress  was  restrained 
until  1808  from  the  prohibition  of  the  foreign  slave  trade,  thus  securing, 
clown  to  that  period,  toleration  for  crime.  This  was  pertinaciously 
pressed  by  the  South,  even  to  the  extent  of  an  absolute  restraint  on 
Congress.  John  Rutledge  said  :  "  If  the  Convention  thinks  North 
Carolina,  South  Carolina,  and  Georgia  will  ever  agree  to  this  plan  [the 
Federal  Constitution]  unless  their  right  to  import  slaves  be  untouched, 
the  expectation  is  vain.  The  people  of  those  States  will  never  be  such 
fools  as  to  give  up  so  important  an  interest."  Charles  Pinckney  said  : 
'•  South  Carolina  can  never  receive  the  plan  [of  the  Constitution]  if  it 
prohibits  the  slave  trade."  Charles  Cotesworth  Pinckney  "  thought 
himself  bound  to  declare  candidly,  that  he  did  not  think  South  Carolina 
would  stop  her  importation  of  slaves  in  any  short  time."  The  effrontery 
of  the  slave-masters  was  matched  by  the  sordidness  of  the  Eastern 
members,  who  yielded  again.  Luther  Martin,  the  eminent  member  of 
the  Convention,  in  his  contemporary  address  to  the  Legislature  of 
Maryland,  has  described  the  compromise.  "I  found,"  he  says,  "that 
the  Eastern  members,  notwithstanding  their  aversion  to  slavery,  were 
very  willing  to  indulge  the  Southern  States,  at  least  with  a  temporary 
liberty  to  prosecute  the  slave  trade,  provided  the  Southern  States  would 
in  their  turn  gratify  them,  by  laying  no  restriction  on  navigation  acts" 
The  bargain  was  struck,  and  at  this  price  the  Southern  States  gained  the 


138  FIRST  NATIONAL   CONVENTION. 

detestable  indulgence.  At  a  subsequent  day,  Congress  branded  the 
slave  trade  as  piracy,  and  thus,  by  solemn  legislative  act,  adjudged  this 
compromise  to  be  felonious  and  wicked. 

Such  are  the  three  chief  original  compromises  of  the  Constitution 
and  essential  conditions  of  Union.  The  case  of  fugitives  from  service 
is  not  of  these.  During  the  Convention,  it  was  not  in  any  way  asso 
ciated  with  these.  Nor  is  there  any  evidence,  from  the  records  of  this 
body,  that  the  provision  on  this  subject  was  regarded  with  any  peculiar 
interest.  As  its  absence  from  the  articles  of  Confederation  had  not 
been  the  occasion  of  solicitude  or  desire,  anterior  to  the  National  Con 
vention,  so  it  did  not  enter  into  any  of  the  original  plans  of  the  Con 
stitution.  It  was  introduced  tardily,  at  a  late  period  of  the  Convention, 
and  with  very  little  and  most  casual  discussion  adopted.  A  few  facts 
will  show  how  utterly  unfounded  are  the  recent  assumptions. 

The  National  Convention  was  convoked  to  meet  at  Philadelphia,  on 
the  second  Monday  in  May,  1787.  Several  members  appeared  at  this 
time  ;  but  a  majority  of  the  States  not  being  represented,  those  present 
adjourned  from  day  to  day  until  the  25th,  when  the  Convention  was 
organized  by  the  choice  of  George  Washington,  as  President.  On  the 
28th,  a  few  brief  rules  and  orders  were  adopted.  On  the  next  day  they 
commenced  their  great  work. 

On  the  same  day,  Edmund  Randolph,  of  slaveholding  Virginia,  laid 
before  the  Convention  a  series  of  sixteen  resolutions,  containing  his 
plan  for  the  establishment  of  a  New  National  Government.  Here  was 
no  allusion  to  fugitive  slaves. 

On  the  same  day,  Charles  Pinckney,  of  slaveholding  South  Carolina, 
laid  before  the  Convention  what  is  called  "  A  draft  of  a  Federal  Gov 
ernment,  to  be  agreed  upon  between  the  free  and  independent  States  of 
America,"  an  elaborate  paper,  marked  by  considerable  minuteness  of 
detail.  Here  are  provisions,  borrowed  from  the  Articles  of  Confedera 
tion,  securing  to  citizens  of  each  State  equal  privileges  in  the  several 
States ;  giving  faith  to  the  public  records  of  the  States  ;  and  ordaining 
the  surrender  of  fugitives  from  justice.  But  this  draft,  though  from  the 
flaming  guardian  of  the  slave  interest,  contained  no  allusion  to  fugitive 
slaves. 

In  the  course  of  the  Convention  other  plans  were  brought  forward ; 
on  the  1 5th  June  a  series  of  eleven  propositions  by  Mr.  Patterson,  of 
New  Jersey,  "  so  as  to  render  the  Federal  Constitution  adequate  to  the 
exigencies  of  Government,  and  the  preservation  of  the  Union  ; "  on  the 
1 8th  June,  eleven  propositions  by  Mr.  Hamilton  of  New  York,  "  con- 


NO    PROPOSITION  FOR   PROPERTY   IN   SLAVES.  139 

taining  his  ideas  of  a  suitable  plan  of  Government  for  the  United  States  ;  " 
and  on  the  igth  June,  Mr.  Randolph's  resolutions,  originally  offered  on 
the  29th  May,  "  as  altered,  amended,  and  agreed  to  in  Committee  of 
the  Whole  House."  On  the  26th,  twenty-three  resolutions,  already 
adopted  on  different  days  in  the  Convention,  were  referred  to  a  "  Com 
mittee  of  Detail,"  to  be  reduced  to  the  form  of  a  Constitution.  On 
the  6th  August  this  Committee  reported  the  finished  draft  of  a  Consti 
tution.  And  yet  in  all  these  resolutions,  plans  and  drafts,  seven  in 
number,  proceeding  from  eminent  members  and  from  able  Committees, 
no  allusion  was  made  to  fugitive  slaves.  For  three  months  the  Con 
vention  was  in  session,  and  not  a  word  uttered  on  this  subject. 

At  last,  on  the  28th  August,  as  the  Convention  was  drawing  to  a  close, 
on  the  consideration  of  the  article  providing  for  the  privileges  of  citizens' 
in  different  States,  we  meet  the  first  reference  to  this  matter,  in  words 
worthy  of  note :  "  Gen.  [Charles  Cotesworth]  Pinckney  was  not  satisfied 
with  it.  He  SEEMED  to  wish  some  provision  should  be  included  in  favor 
of  property  in  slaves."  But  he  made  no  proposition.  Unwilling  to 
shock  the  Convention,  and  uncertain  in  his  own  mind,  he  only  seemed 
to  wish  such  a  provision.  In  this  vague  expression  of  a  vague  desire, 
this  idea  first  appeared.  In  this  modest,  hesitating  phrase  is  the  germ 
of  the  audacious,  unhesitating  Slave  Act.  Here  is  the  little  vapor, 
which  has  since  swollen,  as  in  the  Arabian  tale,  to  the  power  and  dimen 
sions  of  a,  giant.  The  next  article  under  discussion  provided  for  the 
surrender  of  fugitives  from  justice.  Mr.  Butler  and  Mr.  Charles  Pinckney, 
both  from  South  Carolina,  now  moved  openly  to  require  "  fugitive  slaves 
and  servants  to  be  delivered  up  like  criminals."  Here  was  no  disguise. 
With  Hamlet  it  was  now  said  in  spirit : 

"Seems,  madam,  najf,  it  is ;  I  know  not  seems." 

But  the  very  boldness  of  the  effort  drew  attention  and  opposition.  Mr. 
Wilson,  of  Pennsylvania,  at  once  objected  :  "  This  would  oblige  the 
Executive  of  the  State  to  do  it  at  the  public  expense."  Mr.  Sherman, 
of  Connecticut,  "saw  no  more  propriety  in  the  public  seizing  and  sur 
rendering  a  slave  or  servant,  than  a  horse."  Under  the  pressure  of 
these  objections,  the  offensive  proposition  was  quietly  withdrawn — 
never  more  to  be  renewed.  The  article  for  the  surrender  of  criminals 
was  then  adopted.  On  the  next  day,  2pth  August,  profiting  by  the  sug 
gestions  already  made,  Mr.  Butler  moved  a  proposition — substantially 
like  that  now  found  in  the  Constitution — not  for  the  surrender  of 
"fugitive  slaves,"  as  originally  proposed,  but  simply  of  "persons  held 


140  AT  LAST  THE   FUGITIVE   SLAVE  BILL. 

to  service"  which,  without  debate  or  opposition  of  any  kind,  was  unan 
imously  adopted. 

Here  palpably  was  no  labor  of  compromise — no  adjustment  of  con 
flicting  interests ;  nor  even  any  expression  of  solicitude.  The  clause 
finally  adopted  was  vague  and  faint  as  the  original  suggestion.  In  its 
natural  import  it  is  not  applicable  to  slaves.  If  supposed  by  some  to 
be  so  applicable,  it  is  clear  that  it  was  supposed  by  others  to  be  inap 
plicable  to  them.  It  is  now  insisted  that  the  term  "  persons  held  to 
service"  is  an  equivalent  or  synonym  for  "  slaves."  This  interpretation 
is  rebuked  by  an  incident,  to  which  reference  has  been  already  made, 
but  which  will  bear  repetition.  On  the  6th  September — a  little 
more  than  one  brief  week  after  the  clause  had  been  adopted,  and 
when,  if  it  was  deemed  to  be  of  any  significance,  it  could  not  have 
been  forgotten — the  very  word  "service"  came  under  debate,  and 
received  a  fixed  meaning.  It  was  unanimously  adopted  as  a  substitute 
for  "  servitude  "  in  another  part  of  the  Constitution,  for  the  reason  that 
it  "expressed  the  obligation  of  free  persons"  while  the  other  expressed 
"  the  condition  of  Slaves."  In  the  face  of  this  authentic  evidence  of 
the  sentiments  of  the  Convention,  reported  by  Mr.  Madison,  it  is  diffi 
cult  to  see  how  the  term  "  persons  held  to  service  "  can  be  deemed  to 
express  anything  beyond  "the  obligations  of  free  persons"  Thus  in 
the  light  of  calm  inquiry,  does  this  exaggerated  clause  lose  its  im 
portance. 

XIV. 

At  last,  in  1850,  we  have  another  Act,  passed  by  both  Houses  of  Con 
gress,  and  approved  by  the  President,  familiarly  known  as  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill.  As  I  read  this  statute,  I  am  filled  with  painful  emotions. 
The  masterly  subtlety  with  which  it  is  drawn,  might  challenge  admira 
tion,  if  exerted  for  a  benevolent  purpose  ;  but  in  an  age  of  sensibility 
and  refinement,  a  machine  of  torture,  however  skilful  and  apt,  cannot 
be  regarded  without  horror.  Sir,  in  the  name  of  the  Constitution 
which  it  violates  ;  of  my  country  which  it  dishonors ;  of  Humanity 
which  it  degrades ;  of  Christianity  which  it  offends,  I  arraign  this  en 
actment,  and  now  hold  it  up  to  the  judgment  of  the  Senate  and  the 
world.  Again,  I  shrink  from  no  responsibility.  I  may  seem  to  stand 
alone  ;  but  all  the  patriots  and  martyrs  of  history,  all  the  Fathers  of  the 
Republic,  are  with  me.  Sir,  there  is  no  attribute  of  God  which  does 
not  unite  against  this  Act. 


THE   WRIT   OF   HABEAS    CORPUS   OVERTHROWN.  141 

But  I  am  to  regard  it  now  chiefly  as  an  infringement  of  the  Constitu 
tion.  And  here  its  outrages,  flagrant  as  manifold,  assume  the  deepest 
dye  and  broadest  character  only  when  we  consider  that  by  its  language 
it  is  not  restrained  to  any  special  race  or  class,  to  the  African  or  to  the 
person  with  African  blood  ;  but  that  any  inhabitant  of  the  United 
States,  of  whatever  complexion  or  condition,  may  be  its  victim.  With 
out  discrimination  of  color  even,  and  in  violation  of  every  presumption 
of  freedom,  the  Act  surrenders  all,  who  may  be  claimed  as  "  owing  ser 
vice  or  labor  "  to  the  same  tyrannical  proceedings.  If  there  be  any, 
whose  sympathies  are  not  moved  for  the  slave,  who  do  not  cherish  the 
rights  of  the  humble  African,  struggling  for  divine  Freedom,  as  warmly 
as  the  rights  of  the  white  man,  let  him  consider  well  that  the  rights  of 
all  are  equally  assailed.  "  Nephew,"  said  Algernon  Sidney  in  prison, 
on  the  night  before  his  execution,  "  I  value  not  my  own  life  a  chip  ; 
but  what  concerns  me  is,  that  the  law  which  takes  away  my  life  may 
hang  every  one  of  you,  whenever  it  is  thought  convenient." 

Though  thus  comprehensive  in  its  provisions  and  applicable  to  all, 
there  is  no  safeguard  of  Human  Freedom  which  the  monster  Act  does 
not  set  at  naught. 

It  commits  this  great  question — than  which  none  is  more  sacred  in 
the  law — not  to  a  solemn  trial ;  but  to  summary  proceedings. 

It  commits  this  question — not  to  one  of  the  high  tribunals  of  the 
land — but  to  the  unaided  judgment  of  a  single  petty  magistrate. 

It  commits  this  question  to  a  magistrate  appointed,  not  by  the  Pres 
ident  with  the  consent  of  the  Senate,  but  by  the  Court ;  holding  his 
office,  not  during  good  behavior,  but  merely  during  the  will  of  the 
Court ;  and  receiving,  not  a  regular  salary,  but  fees  according  to  each 
individual  case. 

It  authorizes  judgment  on  ex  parte  evidence,  by  affidavits,  without 
the  sanction  of  cross-examination. 

It  denies  the  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus,  ever  known  as  the  Palladium 
of  the  citizen. 

Contrary  to  the  declared  purposes  of  the  framers  of  the  Constitution, 
it  sends  the  fugitive  back  "  at  the  public  expense." 

Adding  meanness  to  the  violation  of  the  Constitution,  it  bribes  the 
Commissioner  by  a  double  stipend  to  pronounce  against  Freedom.  If 
he  dooms  a  man  to  Slavery,  the  reward  is  ten  dollars  ;  but,  saving  him 
to  Freedom,  his  dole  is  five  dollars. 

The  Constitution  expressly  secures  the  "  free  exercise  of  religion ; " 
but  this  Act  visits  with  unrelenting  penalties  the  faithful  men  and 


142  CONGRESSIONAL    USURPATION. 

women,  who  may  render  to  the  fugitive  that  countenance,  succor,  and 
shelter  which  in  their  conscience  "  religion  "  seems  to  require. 

As  it  is  for  the  public  weal  that  there  should  be  an  end  of  suits,  so  by 
the  consent  of  civilized  nations,  these  must  be  instituted  within  fixed 
limitations  of  time  ;  but  this  Act,  exalting  Slavery  above  even  this  prac 
tical  principle  of  universal  justice,  ordains  proceedings  against  Freedom 
without  any  reference  to  the  lapse  of  time. 

Glancing  only  at  these  points,  and  not  stopping  for  argument,  vindi 
cation,  or  illustration,  I  come  at  once  upon  the  two  chief  radical  objec 
tions  to  this  Act,  identical  in  principle  with  those  brought  by  our  fathers 
against  the  British  Stamp  Act ;  first,  that  it  is  an  usurpation  by  Con 
gress  of  powers  not  granted  by  the  Constitution,  and  an  infraction  of 
rights  secured  to  the  States  ;  and,  secondly,  that  it  takes  away  Trial  by 
Jury  in  a  question  of  Personal  Liberty  and  a  suit  at  common  law. 
Either  of  these  objections,  if  sustained,  strikes  at  the  very  root  of  the 
Act.  That  it  is  obnoxious  to  both,  seems  beyond  doubt. 


XV. 


(i.)  Now,  first,  of  the  power  of  Congress  over  this  subject. 

The  Constitution  contains  powers  granted  to  Congress,  compacts  be 
tween  the  States,  and  prohibitions  addressed  to  the  Nation  and  to  the 
States.  A  compact  or  prohibition  may  be  accompanied  by  a  power  ; 
but  not  necessarily,  for  it  is  essentially  distinct  in  its  nature.  And  here 
the  single  question  arises,  Whether  the  Constitution,  by  grant,  general 
or  special,  confers  upon  Congress  any  power  to  legislate  on  the  sub 
ject  of  fugitives  from  service. 

The  whole  legislative  power  of  Congress  is  derived  from  two  sources  ; 
first,  from  the  general  grant  of  power,  attached  to  the  long  catalogue  of 
powers  "  to  make  all  laws  which  shall  be  necessary  and  proper  for  the 
carrying  into  execution  the  foregoing  powers  and  all  other  powers  vest 
ed  by  this  Constitution  in  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  or  in 
any  department  or  officer  thereof;"  and  secondly,  from  special  grants 
in  other  parts  of  the  Constitution.  As  the  provision  in  question  does 
not  appear  in  the  catalogue  of  powers,  and  does  not  purport  to  vest  any 
power  in  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  or  in  any  department 
or  officer  thereof,  no  power  to  legislate  on  this  subject  can  be  derived 
from  the  general  grant.  Nor  can  any  such  power  be  derived  from  any 
special  grant  in  any  other  part  of  the  Constitution  ;  for  none  such  ex- 


MADISON— MORRIS— FRANKLIN— SHERMAN.  143 

ists.  The  conclusion  must  be,  that  no  power  is  delegated  to  Congress 
over  the  surrender  of  fugitives  from  service. 

Thus  the  proceedings  of  the  Convention  show  that  the  founders  un 
derstood  the  necessity  of  powers  in  certain  cases,  and,  on  consideration, 
most  jealously  granted  them.  A  closing  example  will  strengthen  the 
argument.  Congress  is  expressly  empowered  "  to  establish  an  uniform 
rule  of  Naturalization,  and  uniform  laws  on  the  subject  of  Bankrupt 
cies,  throughout  the  United  States"  Without  this  provision,  these  two 
subjects  would  have  been  within  the  control  of  the  States,  and  the 
Nation  would  have  had  no  power  to  establish  an  uniform  rule  thereupon. 
Now,  instead  of  the  existing  compact  on  fugitives  from  service,  it 
would  have  been  easy,  had  any  such  desire  prevailed,  to  add  this  case 
to  the  clause  on  Naturalization  and  Bankruptcies,  and  to  empower  Con 
gress  TO  ESTABLISH  AN  UNIFORM  RULE  FOR  THE  SURRENDER  OF  FU 
GITIVES  FROM  SERVICE  THROUGHOUT  THE  UNITED  STATES.  Then, 

of  course,  whenever  Congress  undertook  to  exercise  the  power,  all  State 
control  of  the  subject  would  have  been  superseded.  The  National 
Government  would  have  been  constituted,  like  Nimrod,  the  mighty 
Hunter,  with  power  to  gather  the  huntsmen,  to  halloo  the  pack,  and 
to  direct  the  chase  of  men,  ranging  at  will,  without  regard  to  boundaries 
or  jurisdictions,  throughout  all  the  States.  But  no  person  in  the  Con 
vention,  not  one  of  the  reckless  partisans  of  slavery,  was  so  audacious 
as  to  make  this  proposition.  Had  it  been  distinctly  made,  it  would 
have  been  distinctly  denied. 

The  fact  that  the  provision  on  this  subject  was  adopted  unanimously, 
while  showing  the  little  importance  attached  to  it  in  the  shape  it  finally 
assumed,  testifies  also  that  it  could  not  have  been  regarded  as  a  source 
of  National  power  over  Slavery.  It  will  be  remembered,  that,  among 
the  members  of  the  Convention,  were  Gouverneur  Morris,  who  had  said 
that  he  "  never  would  concur  in  upholding  domestic  slavery ; "  Elbridge 
Gerry,  who  thought  "  we  ought  to  be  careful  NOT  to  give  any  sanction  to 
it;"  Roger  Sherman,  who  was  OPPOSED  to  any  clause  "acknowledg 
ing  men  to  be  property  ; "  James  Madison,  who  "  thought  it  WRONG  to 
admit  in  the  Constitution  the  idea  that  there  could  be  property  in  man  ; " 
and  Benjamin  Franklin,  who  likened  American  slaveholders  to  Algerine 
corsairs.  In  the  face  of  these  unequivocal  statements,  it  is  absurd  to 
suppose  that  they  consented  unanimously  to  any  provision  by  which  the 
National  Government,  the  work  of  their  hands,  dedicated  to  Freedom, 
could  be  made  the  most  offensive  instrument  of  Slavery. 

Thus  much  for  the  evidence  from  the  history  of  the  Convention. 


144  TRIAL   BY   JURY   DENIED. 

But  the  true  principles  of  our  Political  System  are  in  harmony  with 
this  conclusion  of  history ;  and  here  let  me  say  a  word  of  State  Rights. 

It  was  the  purpose  of  our  fathers  to  create  a  National  Government, 
and  to  endow  it  with  adequate  powers.  They  had  known  the  perils  of 
imbecility,  discord  and  confusion,  during  the  uncertain  days  of  the  Con 
federation,  and  desired  a  Government  which  should  be  a  true  bond  of 
Union  and  an  efficient  organ  of  the  national  interests  at  home  and 
abroad.  But  while  fashioning  this  agency,  they  fully  recognized  the 
Governments  of  the  States.  To  the  nation  were  delegated  high  powers, 
essential  to  the  national  interests,  but  specific  in  character  and  limited 
in  number.  To  the  States  and  to  the  people  were  reserved  the  powers, 
general  in  character  and  unlimited  in  number,  not  delegated  to  the  Na 
tion  or  prohibited  to  the  States. 

And  here  I  end  this  branch  of  the  question.  The  true  principles  of 
our  Political  System,  the  history  of  the  National  Convention,  the  natural 
interpretation  of  the  Convention,  all  teach  that  this  Act  is  a  usurpation 
by  Congress  of  powers  that  do  not  belong  to  it,  and  an  infraction  of 
rights  secured  to  the  States.  It  is  a  sword,  whose  handle  is  at  the  Na 
tional  Capital,  and  whose  point  is  everywhere  in  the  States.  A  weapon 
so  terrible  to  Personal  Liberty  the  Nation  has  no  power  to  grasp. 


XVI. 

(2.)  And  now  of  the  denial  of  Trial  by  Jury.  Admitting,  for  the 
moment,  that  Congress  is  entrusted  with  power  over  this  subject,  which 
truth  disowns,  still  the  Act  is  again  radically  unconstitutional  from  its 
denial  of  Trial  by  Jury  in  a  question  of  Personal  Liberty  and  a  suit  at 
common  law.  Since  on  the  one  side  there  is  a  claim  of  property,  and 
on  the  other  of  liberty,  both  property  and  liberty  are  involved  in  the 
issue.  To  this  claim  on  either  side  is  attached  Trial  by  Jury. 

To  me,  sir,  regarding  this  matter  in  the  light  of  the  common  law  and 
in  the  blaze  of  free  institutions,  it  has  always  seemed  impossible  to 
arrive  at  any  other  conclusion.  If  the  language  of  the  Constitution 
were  open  to  doubt,  which  it  is  not,  still  all  the  presumptions  of  law,  all 
the  leanings  for  Freedom,  all  the  suggestions  of  justice,  plead  angel- 
tongued  for  this  right.  Nobody  doubts  that  Congress,  if  it  legislates  on 
this  matter,  may  allow  a  Trial  by  Jury.  But  if  it  may,  so  overwhelming 
is  the  claim  of  justice,  it  MUST.  Beyond  this,  however,  the  question  is 
determined  by  the  precise  letter  of  the  Constitution. 


ELBRIDGE   GERRY'S   SUGGESTION    ADOPTED.  145 

Several  expressions  in  the  provision  for  the  surrender  of  fugitives 
from  service,  show  the  essential  character  of  the  proceedings.  In  the 
first  place,  the  person  must  be,  not  merely  charged,  as  in  the  case  of 
fugitives  from  justice,  but  actually  held  to  service  in  the  State  from 
which  he  escaped.  In  the  second  place,  he  must  be  "  delivered  up  on 
^claim  of  the  party  to  whom  such  labor  is  due"  These  two  facts,  that 
he  was  held  to  service,  and  that  his  service  was  due  to  his  claimant,  are 
directly  placed  in  issue,  and  must  be  proved.  Two  necessary  incidents 
of  the  delivery  may  also  be  observed.  First,  it  must  be  made  in  the 
State  where  the  fugitive  is  found ;  and,  secondly,  it  restores  to  the 
claimant  his  complete  control  over  the  person  of  the  fugitive.  From 
these  circumstances  it  is  evident  that  the  proceedings  cannot  be  re 
garded,  in  any  just  sense,  as  preliminary,  or  ancillary  to  some  future 
formal  trial,  but  as  complete  in  themselves,  final  and  conclusive. 

And  these  proceedings  determine  on  the  one  side  the  question  of 
property,  and  on  the  other  the  sacred  question  of  Personal  Liberty  in 
its  most  transcendent  form  ;  not  merely  Liberty  for  a  day  or  a  year,  but 
for  life,  and  the  Liberty  of  generations  that  shall  come  after,  so  long 
as  Slavery  endures.  To  these  questions,  the  Constitution,  by  two 
specific  provisions,  attaches  the  Trial  by  Jury.  One  of  these  is  the 
familiar  clause,  already  adduced :  "No  person  shall  be  deprived  of  life, 
liberty  or  property,  without  due  process  of  law  ;  "  that  is,  without  due 
proceedings  at  law,  with  Trial  by  Jury.  Not  stopping  to  dwell  on  this, 
I  press  at  once  to  the  other  provision,  which  is  still  more  express  : 
"In  suits  at  common  law,  where  the  value  in  controversy  shall  exceed 
twenty  dollars,  the  right  of  Trial  by  Jury  shall  be  preserved."  This 
clause,  which  was  not  in  the  original  Constitution  when  first  adopted, 
was  suggested  by  the  very  spirit  of  Freedom.  At  the  close  of  the 
National  Convention,  Elbridge  Gerry  refused  to  sign  the  Constitution, 
because,  among  other  things,  it  established  a  "  tribunal  without  juries,  a 
Star  Chamber  as  to  civil  cases."  Many  united  in  his  opposition,  and 
on  the  recommendation  of  the  First  Congress  this  additional  safeguard, 
was  adopted  as  an  amendment. 

Now,  regarding  the  question  as  one  of  property,  or  of  Personal  Liber 
ty,  in  either  alternative  the  Trial  by  Jury  is  secured.  For  this  position 
authority  is  ample.  In  the  debate  on  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  of  1817- 
18,  a  Senator  from  South  Carolina,  Mr.  Smith,  anxious  for  the  asserted 
right  of  property,  objected,  on  this  very  floor,  to  a  reference  of  the 
question,  under  the  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus,  to  a  judge  without  a  jury. 
Speaking  solely  for  property,  these  were  his  words  : 
10 


146  JUDICIAL  DECISIONS   FOR    FREEDOM. 

"  This  would  give  the  Judge  the  sole  power  of  deciding  the  right  of 
property  the  master  claims  in  his  slaves,  instead  of  trying  that  right  by  a 
jury,  as  prescribed  by  the  Constitution.  He  would  be  judge  of  matters  of 
law  and  matters  of  fact ;  clothed  with  all  the  powers  of  a  court.  Such  a 
principle  is  unknown  in  your  system  of  jurisprudence.  Your  Con 
stitution  has  forbid  it.  It  preserves  the  right  of  Trial  by  Jury  in  all 
cases  where  the  value  in  controversy  exceeds  twenty  dollars." — (De-^ 
bates  in  National  Intelligencer,  June  15,  1818.) 

But  this  provision  has  been  repeatedly  discussed  by  the  Supreme 
Court,  so  that  its  meaning  is  not  open  to  doubt.  Three  conditions 
are  necessary,  first,  the  proceedings  must  be  "  a  suit ;  "  secondly, 
"at  common  law;"  and  thirdly,  "where  the  value  in  controversy 
exceeds  twenty  dollars."  In  every  such  case  "  the  right  of  Trial  by 
Jury  shall  be  preserved."  The  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  ex 
pressly  touch  each  of  these  points. 

First.  In  the  case  of  Cohe?is  v.  Virginia  (6  Wheaton,  407),  the 
Court  say  :  "What  is  a  suit?  We  understand  it  to  be  the  prosecution 
of  some  claim,  demand  or  request."  Of  course,  then,  the  "  claim"  for 
.a  fugitive  must  be  "  a  suit." 

Secondly.  In  the  case  of  Parsons  v.  Bedford  (3  Peters,  456),  while 
-considering  this  very  clause,  the  Court  say :  By  common  law  is  meant 
not  merely  suits  which  the  common  law  recognized  among  its  old  and 
settled  proceeding,  but  suits  in  which  legal  rights  were  to  be  ascer 
tained  and  determined.  In  a  just  sense,  the  Amendment  may  well  be 
construed  to  embrace  all  suits,  which  are  not  of  Equity  or  Admiralty 
jurisdiction,  whatever  may  be  the  peculiar  form  which  they  may  asstime 
.to  settle  legal  rights"  Now,  since  the  claim  for  a  fugitive  is  not  a  suit 
in  Equity  or  Admiralty,  but  a  suit  to  settle  what  are  called  legal  rights, 
•it  must,  of  course,  be  "  a  suit  at  common  law." 

Thirdly.  In  the  case  of  Lee  v.  Lee  (8  Peters,  44),  on  a  question 
whether  "  the  value  in  controversy  "  was  "  one  thousand  dollars  and 
upwards,"  it  was  objected  that  the  appellants,  who  were  petitioners  for 
Freedom,  were  not  of  the  value  of  one  thousand  dollars.  But  the 
Court  said  :  "  The  matter  in  dispute  is  the  Freedom  of  the  petitioners. 
This  is  not  susceptible  of  pecuniary  valuation.  No  doubt  is  entertained 
of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Court."  Of  course,  then,  since  liberty  is 
above  price,  the  claim  to  any  fugitive  always  and  necessarily  presumes 
that  "  the  value  in  controversy  exceeds  twenty  dollars." 

By  these  successive  steps,  sustained  by  decisions  of  the  highest  tri 
bunal,  it  appears,  as  in  a  diagram,  that  the  right  of  Trial  by  Jury  is 
.secured  to  the  fugitive  from  service. 


UNDER  THE   COMMON   LAW.  147 

This  conclusion  needs  no  further  authority ;  but  it  may  receive 
curious  illustration  from  the  ancient  records  of  the  common  law,  so 
familiar  and  dear  to  the  framers  of  the  Constitution.  It  is  said  by  Mr. 
Burke,  in  his  magnificent  speech  on  Conciliation  with  America,  that 
"  nearly  as  many  of  Blackstone's  Commentaries  were  sold  in  America 
as  in  England,"  carrying  thither  the  knowledge  of  those  vital  principles 
of  Freedom,  which  were  the  boast  of  the  British  Constitution.  Imbued 
by  these,  the  earliest  Continental  Congress,  in  1774,  declared,  "That 
the  respective  Colonies  are  entitled  to  the  common  law  of  England, 
and  especially  to  the  great  and  inestimable  privilege  of  being  tried  by 
their  peers  of  the  vicinage  according  to  the  course  of  that  law."  Thus, 
amidst  the  troubles  which  heralded  the  Revolution,  the  common  law  was 
claimed  by  our  fathers  as  a  birthright. 

Now,  on  principle  and  authority,  a  claim  for  the  delivery  of  a  fugitive 
slave  is  a  suit  at  common  law,  and  is  embraced  naturally  and  neces 
sarily  in  this  class  of  judicial  proceedings.  This  proposition  can  be 
placed  beyond  question.  And  here,  especially,  let  me  ask  the  attention 
of  all  learned  in  the  law.  On  this  point,  as  on  every  other  in  this  argu 
ment,  I  challenge  inquiry  and  answer. 

History  painfully  records,  that  during  the  early  days  of  the  common 
law,  and  down  even  to  a  late  period,  a  system  of  slavery  existed  in 
England,  known  under  the  name  of  villanage.  The  slave  was  generally 
called  a  villain,  though  in  the  original  Latin  forms  of  judicial  proceed 
ings,  he  was  termed  nativus,  implying  slavery  by  birth.  The  incidents 
of  this  condition  have  been  minutely  described,  and  also  the  mutual 
remedies  of  master  and  slave,  all  of  which  were  regulated  by  the  com 
mon  law.  Slaves  sometimes  then,  as  now,  escaped  from  their  masters. 
The  claim  for  them  after  such  escape  was  prosecuted  by  a  "  a  suit  at 
common  law,"  to  which,  as  to  every  suit  at  common  law,  the  Trial  by 
Jury  was  necessarily  attached.  Blackstone,  in  his  Commentaries  (Vol. 
II.  p.  93),  in  words  which  must  have  been  known  to  all  the  lawyers  of 
the  Convention,  said  of  villains :  "  They  could  not  leave  their  lord 
without  his  permission,  but  if  they  ran  away,  or  were  purloined  from 
him,  might  be  CLAIMED  and  recovered  by  ACTION,  like  beasts  or  other 
cattle."  This  very  word  "action"  of  itself  implies  "a  suit  at  common 
law,"  with  Trial  by  Jury. 

By  these  various  proceedings,  all  ending  in  Trial  by  Jury,  Personal 
Liberty  was  guarded,  even  in  the  early,  unrefined,  and  barbarous  days 
of  the  common  law.  Any  person  claimed  as  a  fugitive  slave  might 
invoke  this  Trial  as  a  sacred  right.  Whether  the  master  proceeded  by 


148  UNCONSTITUTIONALLY   OF  THE    SLAVE   ACT. 

seizure,  as  he  might,  or  by  legal  process,  the  Trial  by  Jury  in  a  suit  at 
common  law,  before  one  of  the  high  courts  of  the  realm,  was  equally 
secured.  In  the  case  of  seizure,  the  fugitive,  reserving  the  proceedings, 
might  institute  process  against  his  master  and  appeal  to  a  court  and 
jury.  In  the  case  of  process  by  the  master,  the  watchful  law  secured 
to  the  fugitive  the  same  protection.  By  no  urgency  of  force,  by  no 
device  of  process,  could  any  person  claimed  as  a  slave  be  defrauded  of 
this  Trial.  Such  was  the  common  law.  If  its  early  boast,  that  there 
could  be  no  slaves  in  England,  fails  to  be  true,  this  at  least  may  be 
its  price,  that,  according  to  its  indisputable  principles,  the  Liberty  of 
every  man  was  placed  under  the  guard  of  Trial  by  Jury. 


XVII. 

Such,  sir,  is  the  argument,  briefly  uttered,  against  the  constitution 
ality  of  the  Slave  Act.  Much  more  I  might  say  on  this  matter ;  much 
more  on  the  two  chief  grounds  of  objection  which  I  have  occupied. 
But  I  am  admonished  to  hasten  on. 

Opposing  this  Act  as  doubly  unconstitutional  from  a  want  of  power 
in  Congress  and  from  a  denial  of  Trial  by  Jury.  I  find  myself  again 
encouraged  .by  the  example  of  our  Revolutionary  Fathers,  in  a  case 
which  is  one  of  the  landmarks  of  history.  The  parallel  is  important 
and  complete.  In  1765,  the  British  Parliament,  by  a  notorious  statute, 
attempted  to  draw  money  from  the  colonies  through  a  stamp  tax,  while 
the  determination  of  certain  questions  of  forfeiture  under  the  statute 
was  delegated — not  to  the  courts  of  common  law — but  to  Courts  of 
Admiralty  without  a  jury.  The  Stamp  Act,  now  execrated  by  all  lovers 
of  liberty,  had  this  extent  and  no  more.  Its  passage  was  the  signal 
for  a  general  flame  of  opposition  and  indignation  throughout  the 
Colonies.  It  was  denounced  as  contrary  to  the  British  Constitution  on 
two  principal  grounds  :  first,  as  a  usurpation  by  Parliament  of  powers 
not  belonging  to  it,  and  an  infraction  of  rights  secured  to  the  Colonies  ; 
and  secondly,  as  a  denial  of  Trial  by  Jury  in  certain  cases  of  property. 

The  public  feeling  was  variously  expressed.  At  Boston,  on  the 
arrival  of  the  stamps,  the  shops  were  closed,  the  bells  of  the  churches 
tolled,  and  the  flags  of  the  ships  hung  at  half-mast.  At  Portsmouth,  in 
New  ^Hampshire,  the  bells  were  tolled,  and  notice  given  to  the  friends 
of  Liberty  to  hold  themselves  in  readiness  to  attend  her  funeral.  At 
New  York  a  letter  was  received  from  Franklin,  then  in  London,  writ- 


THE   INFLEXIBLE   SAMUEL   ADAMS.  149 

ten  on  the  day  after  the  passage  of  the  Act,  in  which  he  said  :  "The 
sun  of  liberty  is  set."  The  obnoxious  Act,  headed  "  Folly  of  Eng 
land  and  Ruin  of  America,"  was  contemptuously  hawked  through  the 
streets.  The  merchants  of  New  York,  inspired  then  by  Liberty, 
resolved  to  import  no  more  goods  from  England  until  the  repeal  of  the 
Act ;  and  their  example  was  followed  shortly  afterwards  by  the  mer 
chants  of  Philadelphia  and  Boston.  Bodies  of  patriots  were  organized 
everywhere  under  the  name  of  "Sons  of  Liberty."  The  orators  also 
spoke.  James  Otis  with  fiery  tongue  appealed  to  Magna  Charta. 

Of  all  the  States,  Virginia — whose  shield  bears  the  image  of  liberty 
trampling  upon  chains — first  declared  herself  by  solemn  resolutions, 
which  the  timid  thought  "  treasonable  ; "  but  which  soon  found  a 
response.  New  York  followed.  Massachusetts  came  next,  speaking 
by  the  pen  of  the  inflexible  Samuel  Adams.  In  an  Address  from  the 
Legislature  to  the  Governor,  the  true  grounds  of  opposition  to  the 
Stamp  Act,  coincident  with  the  two  radical  objections  to  the  Slave  Act, 
are  clearly  set  forth  : 

"You  are  pleased  to  say  that  the  Stamp  Act  is  an  act  of  Parliament, 
and  as  such  ought  to  be  observed.  This  House,  sir,  has  too  great 
reverence  for  the  Supreme  Legislature  of  the  nation  to  question  its  just 
authority.  It  by  no  means  appertains  to  us  to  presume  to  adjust  the 
boundaries  of  the  power  of  Parliament ;  but  boundaries  there  undoubtedly 
are.  We  hope  we  may,  without  offence,  put  your  Excellency  in  mind 
of  that  most  grievous  sentence  of  excommunication  solemnly  denounced 
by  the  Church  in  the  name  of  the  sacred  Trinity,  in  the  presence  of 
King  Henry  the  Third  and  the  estates  of  the  realm,  against  all  those 
who  should  make  statutes  OR  OBSERVE  THEM,  BEING  MADE,  contrary  to 
tJie  liberties  of  Magna  Charta.  The  Charter  of  this  province  invests  the 
General  Assembly  with  the  power  of  making  laws  for  its  internal  gov 
ernment  and  taxation  ;  and  this  Charter  has  never  been  forfeited.  The 
Parliament  has  a  right  to  make  all  laws  within  the  limits  of  their  own 
constitution."  *  *  *  "  The  people  complain  that  the  Act  vests  a  single 
judge  of  Admiralty  with  the  power  to  try  and  determine  their  property 
in  controversies  arising  from  internal  concerns,  without  a  jury,  contrary 
to  the  very  expression  of  Magna  Charta,  that  no  freeman  shall  be 
amerced,  but  by  the  oath  of  good  and  lawful  men  of  the  vicinage."  *  *  * 
"  We  deeply  regret  that  the  Parliament  has  seen  fit  to  pass  such  an  act 
as  the  Stamp  Act ;  we  flatter  ourselves  that  the  hardships  of  it  will 
shortly  appear  to  them  in  such  a  light,  as  shall  induce  them  in  their 
wisdom  to  repeal  it  ;  in  the  meantime,  we  must  beg  your  Excellency 
will  excuse  us  from  doing  anything  to  assist  in  the  execution  of  it" 

Thus  in  those  days  spoke  Massachusetts  !  The  parallel  still  proceeds. 
The  unconstitutional  Stamp  Act  was  welcomed  in  the  Colonies  by  the 


150         BOSTON'S  OPPOSITION  TO  THE  STAMP  ACT. 

Tories  of  that  day  precisely  as  the  unconstitutional  Slave  Act  has  been 
welcomed  by  large  and  imperious  numbers  among  us.  Hutchinson, 
at  that  time  Lieutenant  Governor  and  Judge  in  Massachusetts,  wrote  to 
Ministers  in  England  :  "  The  Stamp  Act  is  received  with  as  much 
decency  as  could  be  expected.  It  leaves  no  room  for  evasion,  and  will 
execute  itself."  Like  the  judges  of  our  day,  in  charges  to  grand  juries, 
he  resolutely  vindicated  the  Act,  and  admonished  "  the  jurors  and  the 
people"  to  obey.  Like  Governors  of  our  day,  Bernard,  in  his  speech 
to  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts,  demanded  unreasoning  submission. 
u  I  shall  not,"  says  this  British  Governor,  "  enter  into  any  disquisition 
of  the  policy  of  this  Act.  I  have  only  to  say  it  is  an  Act  of  the  Parlia 
ment  of  Great  Britain  ;  and  I  trust  that  the  supremacy  of  that  Parlia 
ment  over  all  the  members  of  their  wide  and  diffused  empire  never  was 
and  never  will  be  denied  within  these  walls."  Like  marshals  of  our  day, 
the  officers  of  the  Customs  made  "  application  for  a  military  force  to 
assist  them  in  the  execution  of  their  duty."  The  military  were  against 
the  people.  A  British  major  of  artillery  at  New  York  exclaimed,  in 
tones  not  unlike  those  now  sometimes  heard  :  "  I  will  cram  the  stamps 
down  their  throats  with  the  end  of  my  sword."  The  elaborate  answer 
of  Massachusetts — a  paper  of  historic  grandeur — drawn  by  Samuel 
Adams,  was  pronounced  "  the  ravings  of  a  parcel  of  wild  enthusiasts." 

XVIII. 

Thus  in  those  days  spoke  the  partisans  of  the  Stamp  Act.  But  their 
weakness  soon  became  manifest.  In  the  face  of  an  awakened  com 
munity,  where  discussion  has  free  scope,  no  men,  though  surrounded 
by  office  and  wealth,  can  long  sustain  injustice.  Earth,  water,  nature, 
they  may  subdue  ;  but  Truth  they  cannot  subdue.  Subtle  and  mighty, 
against  all  efforts  and  devices,  it  fills  every  region  of  light  with  its  ma 
jestic  presence.  The  Stamp  Act  was  discussed  and  understood.  Its 
violation  of  constitutional  rights  was  exposed.  By  resolutions  of  Legis 
latures  and  of  town  meetings,  by  speeches  and  writings,  by  public  as 
semblies  and  processions,  the  country  was  rallied  in  peaceful  phalanx 
against  the  execution  of  the  Act.  To  this  great  object,  within  the 
bounds  of  law  and  the  constitution,  were  bent  all  the  patriot  energies  of 
the  land. 

And  here  Boston  took  the  lead.  Her  records  at  this  time  are  full  of 
proud  memorials.  In  formal  instructions  to  her  representatives,  adopted 


VIRGINIA   RESPONDS   TO   BOSTON.  151 

unanimously,  "having  been  read  several  times,"  in  Town  Meeting  at 
Faneuil  Hall,  the  following  rule  of  conduct  was  prescribed  : 

"We,  therefore,  think  it  our  indispensable  duty,  in  Justice  to  our 
selves  and  Posterity,  as  it  is  our  undoubted  Privilege,  in  the  most  open 
and  unreserved,  but  decent  and  respectful  Terms,  to  declare  our  great 
est  Dissatisfaction  with  this  Law.  And  we  think  it  incumbent  upon  you 
by  no  Means  to  join  in  any  public  Measures  for  countenancing  and 
assisting  in  the  execution  of  the  same.  But  to  use  your  best  endeav 
ors  in  the  general  Assembly  to  have  the  inherent  inalienable  Rights  of 
the  People  of  this  Province  asserted,  and  vindicated,  and  left  upon  the 
public  record,  that  Posterity  may  never  have  reason  to  charge  the  pre 
sent  Times  with  the  Guilt  of  tamely  giving  them  away." 

Virginia  responded  to  Boston.  Many  of  her  justices  of  the  peace  sur 
rendered  their  commissions  "rather  than  aid  in  the  enforcement  of  the 
law,  or  be  instrumental  in  the  overthrow  of  their  country's  liberties." 

As  the  opposition  deepened,  its  natural  tendency  was  to  outbreak  and 
violence.  But  this  was  carefully  restrained.  On  one  occasion  in 
Boston  it  showed  itself  in  the  lawlessness  of  a  mob.  But  the  town, 
at  a  public  meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall,  called  without  delay  on  the 
motion  of  the  opponents  of  the  Stamp  Act,  with  James  Otis  as 
chairman,  condemned  the  outrage.  Eager  in  hostility  to  the  execution 
of  the  Act,  Boston  cherished  municipal  order,  and  constantly  discoun 
tenanced  all  tumult,  violence,  and  illegal  proceedings.  Her  equal  de 
votion  to  these  two  objects  drew  the  praises  and  congratulations  of  other 
towns.  In  reply,  March  2  7th,  1766,  to  an  Address  from  the  inhabitants 
of  Plymouth,  her  own  consciousness  of  duty  done  is  thus  expressed  : 

"  If  the  inhabitants  of  Boston  have  taken  the  legal  and  warrantable 
measures  to  prevent  that  misfortune,  of  all  others  the  most  to  be  dreaded, 
the  execution  of  the  Stamp  Act,  and  as  a  necessary  means  of  preventing 
it,  have  made  any  spirited  applications  for  opening  the  custom-houses 
and  courts  of  justice  ;  if  at  the  same  time  they  have  borne  their  testimony 
against  outrageous  tumults  and  illegal  proceedings,  and  given  any  ex 
ample  of  the  Love  of  Peace  and  good  order,  next  to  the  consciousness 
of  having  done  their  duty  is  the  satisfaction  of  meeting  with  the  appro 
bation  of  any  of  their  fellow-countrymen." 

Learn  now  from  the  Diary  of  John  Adams  the  results  of  this  system  : 

"  The  year  1 765  has  been  the  most  remarkable  year  of  my  life.  That 
enormous  engine,  fabricated  by  the  British  Parliament,  for  battering 
down  all  the  rights  and  liberties  of  America — I  mean  the  Stamp  Act — 
has  raised  and  spread  through  the  whole  continent  a  spirit  that  will  be 
recorded  to  our  honor  with  all  future  generations.  In  every  Colony, 
from  Georgia  to  New  Hampshire  inclusively,  the  stamp  distributors  and 


152  THE   STAMP   ACT   IS   REPEALED. 

inspectors  have  been  compelled  by  the  unconquerable  rage  of  the  peo 
ple  to  renounce  their  offices.  Such  and  so  universal  has  been  the 
resentment  of  the  people,  that  every  man  who  has  dared  to  speak  in 
favor  of  the  stamps,  or  to  soften  the  detestation  in  which  they  are  held, 
how  great  soever  his  abilities  and  virtues  had  been  esteemed  before,  or 
whatever  his  fortune,  connections  and  influence  had  been,  has  been 
seen  to  sink  into  universal  contempt  and  ignominy." 

The  Stamp  Act  became  a  dead  letter.  At  the  meeting  of  Parliament 
numerous  petitions  were  presented,  cdling  for  its  instant  repeal. 
Franklin,  at  that  time  in  England,  while  giving  his  famous  testimony 
before  the  House  of  Commons,  was  asked  whether  he  thought  the  peo 
ple  of  America  would  submit  to  this  Act  if  modified.  His  brief  em 
phatic  response  was  :  "  No.  never,  unless  compelled  by  force  of  arms." 
Chatham,  yet  weak  with  disease,  but  mighty  in  eloquence,  exclaimed  in 
ever-memorable  words:  "We  are  told  America  is  obstinate — America 
is  almost  in  open  rebellion.  Sir,  I  rejoice  that  America  has  resisted. 
Three  millions  of  people,  so  dead  to  all  the  feelings  of  liberty  as  volun 
tarily  to  submit  to  be  slaves,  would  have  been  fit  instruments  to  make 
slaves  of  all  the  rest.  The  Americans  have  been  wronged  ;  they  have 
been  driven  to  madness.  I  will  beg  leave  to  tell  the  house  in  a  few 
words  what  is  really  my  opinion.  //  is  that  the  Stamp  Act  be  repealed, 
absolutely,  totally  and  immediately"  It  was  repealed.  Within  less 
than  a  year  from  its  original  passage,  denounced  and  discredited,  it  was 
driven  from  the  Statute  Book,  In  the  charnel-house  of  history,  with 
the  unclean  things  of  the  Past,  it  now  rots.  Thither  the  Slave  Act  is 
destined  to  follow. 


XIX. 

Sir,  I  might  here  stop.  It  is  enough  in  this  place,  and  on  this  occa 
sion,  to  show  the  unconstitutionality  of  this  enactment.  Your  duty 
commences  at  once.  All  legislation  hostile  to  the  fundamental  law  of 
i'he  land  should  be  repealed  without  delay.  But  the  argument  is  not 
yet  exhausted.  Even  if  this  Act  could  claim  any  validity  or  apology 
under  the  Constitution,  which  it  cannot,  /'/  lacks  that  essential  support 
in  the  Public  Conscie?ice  of  the  States,  where  it  is  to  be  enforced,  which 
is  the  life  of  all  law,  and  without  which  any  law  mtist  become  a  dead 
letter. 

The  Senator  from  South  Carolina  (Mr.  Butler)  was  right,  when,  at 
the  beginning  of  the  session,  he  pointedly  said  that  a  law  which  could 


WASHINGTON    OPPOSED    TO   FORCIBLE   RENDITION.          153 

be  enforced  only  by  the  bayonet,  was  no  law.  Sir,  it  is  idle  to  suppose 
that  an  Act  of  Congress  becomes  effective,  merely  by  compliance  with 
the  forms  of  legislation.  Something  more  is  necessary.  The  Act  must  be 
in  harmony  with  the  prevailing  public  sentiment  of  the  community  upon 
which  it  bears.  Of  course,  I  do  not  suggest  that  the  cordial  support  of 
every  man  or  of  every  small  locality  is  necessary ;  but  I  do  mean  that  the 
public  feelings,  the  public  convictions,  the  public  conscience,  must  not  be 
touched,  wounded,  lacerated,  by  every  endeavor  to  enforce  it.  With  all 
these,  it  must  be  so  far  in  harmony,  that,  like  other  laws,  by  which  prop 
erty,  liberty  and  life  are  guarded,  it  may  be  administered  by  the  ordinary 
process  of  courts,  without  jeoparding  the  public  peace  or  shocking  good 
men.  If  this  be  true  as  a  general  rule — if  the  public  support  and  sym 
pathy  be  essential  to  the  life  of  all  law — this  is  especially  the  case  in  an 
enactment  which  concerns  the  important  and  sensitive  rights  of  Personal 
Liberty.  In  conformity  with  this  principle,  the  Legislature  of  Massa 
chusetts,  by  formal  resolution,  in  1850,  with  singular  unanimity,  declared  : 

"  We  hold  it  to  be  the  duty  of  Congress  to  pass  such  laws  only  in 
regard  thereto  as  will  be  maintained  by  the  sentiments  of  the  Free 
States,  where  such  laws  are  to  be  enforced." 

The  duty  of  consulting  these  sentiments  was  recognized  by  Wash 
ington.  While  President  of  the  United  States,  at  the  close  of  his  Ad 
ministration,  he  sought  to  recover  a  slave  who  had  fled  to  New  Hamp 
shire.  His  autograph  letter  to  Mr.  Whipple,  the  Collector  at  Portsmouth, 
dated  at  Philadelphia,  28th  November,  1796,  which  I  now  hold  in  my 
hand,  and  which  has  never  before  seen  the  light,  after  describing  the 
fugitive,  and  particularly  expressing  the  desire  of  "  her  mistress,"  Mrs. 
Washington,  for  her  return,  employs  the  following  decisive  language  : 

"  I  do  not  mean,  however,  by  this  request,  that  such  violent  measures 
should  be  used  AS  WOULD  EXCITE  A  MOB  OR  RIOT,  WHICH  MIGHT  BE  THE 

CASE    IF    SHE     HAS    ADHERENTS,    OR    EVEN    UNEASY     SENSATIONS    IN    THE 

MINDS  OF  WELL-DISPOSED  CITIZENS.  Rather  than  either  of  these  should 
happen,  I  would  forego  her  services  altogether;  and  the  example,  also, 
which  is  of  infinite  more  importance. 

"  GEORGE  WASHINGTON." 

Mr.  Whipple,  in  his  reply,  dated  at  Portsmouth,  December  22,  1796,  an 
autograph  copy  of  which  I  have,  recognizes  the  rule  of  Washington ": 

"  I  will  now,  sir,  agreeably  to  your  desire,  send  her  to  Alexandria, 
if  it  be  practicable  without  the  consequences  which  you  except — that  of 
exciting  a  riot  or  a  mob,  or  creating  imeasy  sensations  in  the  minds  of 
well-disposed  persons.  The  first  cannot  be  calculated  beforehand  ;  it 
will  be  governed  by  the  popular  opinion  of  the  moment,  or  the  circum- 


154  WASHINGTON   LEAVES   HIS   SLAVES   FREE. 

stances  that  may  arise  in  the  transaction.  The  latter  may  be  sought 
into  and  judged  of  by  conversing  with  such  persons  without  discover 
ing  the  occasion.  So  far  as  I  have  had  opportunity,  I  perceive  that 
different  sentiments  are  entertained  on  this  subject." 

The  fugitive  never  was  returned ;  but  lived  in  freedom  to  a  good  old 
age,  down  to  a  very  recent  period,  a  monument  of  the  just  forbearance 
of  him  whom  we  aptly  call  the  Father  of  his  Country.  It  is  true  that 
he  sought  her  return.  This  we  must  regret,  and  find  its  apology.  He 
was  at  the  time  a  slaveholder.  Though  often  with  various  degrees  of 
force  expressing  himself  against  slavery,  and  promising  his  suffrage  for 
its  abolition,  he  did  not  see  this  wrong  as  he  saw  it  at  the  close  of  life, 
in  the  illumination  of  another  sphere.  From  this  act  of  Washington, 
still  swayed  by  the  policy  of  the  world,  I  appeal  to  Washington  writing 
his  will.  From  Washington  on  earth  I  appeal  to  Washington  in  Heaven. 
Seek  not  by  his  name  to  justify  any  such  effort.  His  death  is  above  his 
life.  His  last  testament  cancels  his  authority  as  a  slaveholder.  How 
ever  he  may  have  appeared  before  man,  he  came  into  the  presence  of 
God  only  as  the  liberator  of  his  slaves.  Grateful  for  this  example,  I  am 
grateful  also  that,  while  a  slaveholder,  and  seeking  the  return  of  a  fugi 
tive,  he  has  left  in  permanent  record  a  rule  of  conduct  which,  if  adopted 
by  his  country,  will  make  Slave-Hunting  impossible.  The  chances  of  a 
riot,  or  mob,  or  "even  uneasy  sensations  among  well-disposed  persons," 
are  to  prevent  any  such  pursuit. 

Sir,  the  existing  Slave  Act  cannot  be  enforced  without  violating  the 
precept  of  Washington.  Not  merely  "  uneasy  sensations  of  well-dis 
posed  persons,"  but  rage,  tumult,  commotion,  mob,  riot,  violence,  death, 
gush  from  its  fatal  overflowing  fountains.  Not  a  case  occurs  without 
endangering  the  public  peace.  Workmen  are  brutally  dragged  from 
employments  to  which  they  are  wedded  by  years  of  successful  labor ; 
husbands  are  ravished  from  wives,  and  parents  from  children.  Every 
where  there  is  disturbance ;  at  Detroit,  Buffalo,  Harrisburg,  Syracuse, 
Philadelphia,  New  York,  Boston.  At  Buffalo  the  fugitive  was  cruelly 
knocked  by  a  log  of  wood  against  a  red-hot  stove,  and  his  mock 
trial  commenced  while  the  blood  still  oozed  from  his  wounded  head. 
At.  Syracuse  he  was  rescued  by  a  sudden  mob;  so  also  at  Boston. 
At  Harrisburg  the  fugitive  was  shot  ;  at  Christiana  the  Slave-Hunter 
was  shot.  At  New  York  unprecedented  excitement,  always  with  un 
certain  consequences,  has  attended  every  case.  Again  at  Boston  a 
fugitive,  according  to  the  received  report,  was  first  basely  seized  under 
pretext  that  he  was  a  criminal ;  arrested  only  after  a  deadly  struggle  ; 


WHO   COULD   SING   FOR   SLAVERY?  155 

guarded  by  officers  who  acted  in  violation  of  the  laws  of  the  State  ; 
tried  in  a  Court-House  surrounded  by  chains,  contrary  to  the  com 
mon  law  ;  finally  surrendered  to  Slavery  by  trampling  on  the  criminal 
process  of  the  State,  under  an  escort  in  violation  again  of  the  laws 
of  the  State,  while  the  pulpits  trembled  and  the  whole  people,  not 
merely  "  uneasy,"  but  swelling  with  ill-suppressed  indignation,  for  the 
sake  of  order  and  tranquillity,  without  violence  witnessed  the  shameful 
catastrophe. 

With  every  attempt  to  administer  the  Slave  Act,  it  constantly  be 
comes  more  revolting,  particularly  in  its  influence  on  the  agents  it 
enlists.  Pitch  cannot  be  touched  without  defilement,  and  all  who  lend 
themselves  to  this  work  seem  at  once  and  unconsciously  to  lose  the 
better  part  of  man.  The  spirit  of  the  law  passes  into  them,  as  the 
devils  entered  the  swine.  Upstart  commissioners,  the  mere  mushrooms  of 
courts,  vie  and  revie  with  each  other.  Now  by  indecent  speed,  now  by 
harshness  of  manner,  now  by  a  denial  of  evidence,  now  by  crippling  the 
defence,  and  now  by  open  glaring  wrong,  they  make  the  odious  Act 
yet  more  odious.  Clemency,  grace,  and  justice  die  in  its  presence. 
All  this  is  observed  by  the  world.  Not  a  case  occurs  which  does  not 
harrow  the  souls  of  good  men,  and  bring  tears  of  sympathy  to  the  eyes, 
also  those  other  noble  tears  which  "patriots  shed  o'er  dying  laws." 

Sir,  I  shall  speak  frankly.  If  there  be  an  exception  to  this  feeling, 
it  will  be  found  chiefly  with  a  peculiar  class.  It  is  a  sorry  fact  that  the 
"  mercantile  interest,"  in  its  unpardonable  selfishness,  twice  in  English 
history,  frowned  upon  the  endeavors  to  suppress  the  atrocity  of  Algerine 
Slavery  ;  that  it  sought  to  baffle  Wilberforce's  great  effort  for  the  aboli 
tion  of  the  African  slave  trade  ;  and  that,  by  a  sordid  compromise,  at  the 
formation  of  our  Constitution,  it  exempted  the  same  detested  Heaven- 
defying  traffic  from  American  judgment.  And  now  representatives  of 
this  "interest,"  forgetful  that  commerce  is  the  child  of  Freedom,  join  in 
hunting  the  Slave.  But  the  great  heart  of  the  people  recoils  from  this 
enactment.  It  palpitates  for  the  fugitive,  and  rejoices  in  his  escape. 
Sir,  I  am  telling  you  facts.  The  literature  of  the  age  is  all  on  his  side. 
The  songs,  more  potent  than  laws,  are  for  him.  The  poets,  with  voices 
of  melody,  are  for  freedom.  Who  could  sing  for  Slavery  ?  They  who 
make  the  permanent  opinion  of  the  country,  who  mould  our  youth, 
whose  words,  dropped  into  the  soul,  are  the  germs  of  character,  sup 
plicate  for  the  Slave.  And  now,  sir,  behold  a  new  and  heavenly  ally. 
A  woman,  inspired  by  Christian  genius,  enters  the  lists,  like  another 
Joan  of  Arc,  and  with  marvellous  power,  sweeps  the  chords  of  the  pop- 


156         ARAGO  REDEEMED  FROM  SLAVERY. 

ular  heart.  Now  melting  to  tears,  and  now  inspiring  to  rage,  her  work 
everywhere  touches  the  conscience,  and  makes  the  Slave-Hunter  more 
hateful.  In  a  brief  period,  nearly  100,000  copies  of  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin 
have  been  already  circulated.  But  this  extraordinary  and  sudden  suc 
cess—surpassing  all  other  instances  in  the  records  of  literature — cannot 
be  regarded  merely  as  the  triumph  of  genius.  Higher  far  than  this,  it 
is  the  testimony  of  the  people,  by  an  unprecedented  act,  against  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill. 

I  have  said,  sir,  that  this  sentiment  is  just.  And  is  it  not  ?  Every 
escape  from  slavery  necessarily  and  instinctively  awakens  the  regard  of 
all  who  love  Freedom.  The  endeavor,  though  unsuccessful,  reveals 
courage,  manhood,  character.  No  story  is  read  with  more  interest 
than  that  of  our  own  Lafayette,  when,  aided  by  a  gallant  South  Caro 
linian,  in  defiance  of  the  despotic  ordinances  of  Austria,  kindred  to 
our  Slave  Act,  he  strove  to  escape  from  the  bondage  of  Olmutz.  Liter 
ature  pauses  with  exultation  over  the  struggles  of  Cervantes,  the  great 
Spaniard,  while  a  slave  in  Algiers,  to  regain  the  liberty  for  which  he 
says,  in  his  immortal  work,  "  we  ought  to  risk  life  itself,  Slavery  being 
the  greatest  evil  that  can  fall  to  the  lot  of  man."  Science,  in  all  her 
manifold  triumphs,  throbs  with  pride  and  delight,  that  Arago,  the  astron 
omer  and  philosopher — devoted  republican  also — was  redeemed  from 
barbarous  Slavery  to  become  one  of  her  greatest  sons.  Religion  re 
joices  serenely,  with  joy  unspeakable,  in  the  final  escape  of  Vincent  de 
Paul.  Exposed  in  the  public  squares  of  Tunis  to  the  inspection  of  the 
traffickers  in  human  flesh,  this  illustrious  Frenchman  was  subjected  to 
every  vileness  of  treatment,  compelled,  like  a  horse,  to  open  his  mouth, 
to  show  his  teeth,  to  trot,  to  run,  to  exhibit  his  strength  in  lifting  bur 
dens,  and  then,  like  a  horse,  legally  sold  in  market  overt.  Passing  from 
master  to  master,  after  a  protracted  servitude,  he  achieved  his  freedom, 
and  regaining  France,  commenced  that  resplendent  career  of  charity  by 
which  he  is  placed  among  the  great  names  of  Christendom.  Princes 
and  orators  have  lavished  panegyrics  upon  this  fugitive  slave  ;  and  the 
Catholic  Church,  in  homage  to  his  extraordinary  virtues,  has  introduced 
him  into  the  company  of  saints. 

Less  by  genius  or  eminent  services,  than  by  sufferings,  are  the  fugi 
tive  slaves  of  our  country  now  commended.  For  them  every  sentiment 
of  humanity  is  aroused  : 

"  Who  could  refrain 

That  had  a  heart  to  love,  and  in  that  heart 
Courage  to  make  his  love  known  ?  " 


REVIEW   OF  THE   ARGUMENT.  1 57 

Rude  and  ignorant  they  may  be  ;  but  in  their  very  efforts  for  Freedom, 
they  claim  kindred  with  all  that  is  noble  in  the  Past.  They  are  among 
the  heroes  of  our  age.  Romance  has  no  stories  of  more  thrilling  inter 
est  than  theirs.  Classical  antiquity  has  preserved  no  examples  of  ad 
venturous  trial  more  worthy  of  renown.  Among  them  are  men  whose 
names  will  be  treasured  in  the  annals  of  their  race.  By  their  eloquent 
voice  they  have  already  done  much  to  make  their  wrongs  known,  and 
to  secure  the  respect  of  the  world.  History  will  soon  lend  them  her 
avenging  pen.  Proscribed  by  you  during  life,  they  will  proscribe  you 
through  all  time.  Sir,  already  judgment  is  beginning.  A  righteous 
public  sentiment  palsies  your  enactment. 


xx. 

And  now,  sir,  let  us  review  the  field  over  which  we  have  passed. 
We  have  seen  that  any  compromise,  finally  closing  the  discussion  of 
Slavery  under  the  Constitution,  is  tyrannical,  absurd,  and  impotent ; 
that  as  Slavery  can  exist  only  by  virtue  of  positive  law,  and  as  it  has  no 
such  positive  support  in  the  Constitution,  it  cannot  exist  within  the 
National  jurisdiction  ;  that  the  Constitution  nowhere  recognizes  prop 
erty  in  man,  and  that,  according  to  its  true  interpretation,  Freedom  and 
not  Slavery  is  national,  while  Slavery  and  not  Freedom  is  sectional ; 
that,  in  this  spirit,  the  National  Government  was  first  organized  under 
Washington,  himself  an  Abolitionist,  surrounded  by  Abolitionists,  while 
the  whole  country,  by  its  Church,  its  Colleges,  its  Literature,  and  all  its 
best  voices,  was  united  against  Slavery,  and  the  national  flag  at  that 
time  nowhere  within  the  National  Territory  covered  a  single  slave; 
still  further,  that  the  National  Government  is  a  Government  of  del 
egated  powers,  and  as  among  these  there  is  no  power  to  support 
Slavery,  this  institution  cannot  be  national,  nor  can  Congress  in  any 
way  legislate  in  its  behalf;  and,  finally,  that  the  establishment  of  this 
principle  is  the  true  way  of  peace  and  safety  for  the  Republic.  Con 
sidering  next  the  provision  for  the  surrender  of  fugitives  from  service, 
we  have  seen  that  it  was  not  one  of  the  original  compromises  of  the 
Constitution ;  that  it  was  introduced  tardily  and  with  hesitation,  and 
adopted  with  little  discussion,  and  then  and  for  a  long  period  after  was 
regarded  with  comparative  indifference  ;  that  the  recent  Slave  Act, 
though  many  times  unconstitutional,  is  especially  so  on  two  grounds — 
first,  as  a  usurpation.by  Congress  of  powers  not  granted  by  the  Consti- 


158  SLAVE — THAT   LITANY   OF   WRONG  AND   WOE. 

tution,  and  an  infraction  of  rights  secured  to  the  States ;  and  secondly, 
as  a  denial  of  Trial  by  Jury,  in  a  question  of  Personal  Liberty  and  a 
suit  at  common  law  ;  that  its  glaring  unconstitutionality  finds  a  proto 
type  in  the  British  Stamp  Act,  which  our  fathers  refused  to  obey  as  un 
constitutional  on  two  parallel  grounds — first,  because  it  was  a  usurpa 
tion  by  Parliament  of  powers  not  belonging  to  it  under  the  British 
Constitution,  and  an  infraction  of  rights  belonging  to  the  Colonies  ; 
and  secondly,  because  it  was  a  denial  of  Trial  by  Jury  in  certain  cases 
of  property  ;  that  as  Liberty  is  far  above  property,  so  is  the  outrage 
perpetrated  by  the  American  Congress  far  above  that  perpetrated  by 
the  British  Parliament ;  and,  finally,  that  the  Slave  Act  has  not  that 
support  in  the  public  sentiment  of  the  States  where  it  is  to  be  executed, 
which  is  the  life  of  all  law,  and  which  prudence  and  the  precept  of 
Washington  require. 

Briefly,  the  States  are  prohibited  from  any  "  law  or  regulation"  by  which 
any  "  person  "  escaped  from  "  service  or  labor "  may  be  discharged 
therefrom,  and  on  establishment  of  the  claim  to  such  "  service  or  labor," 
he  is  to  be  "  delivered  up."  But  the  mode  by  which  the  claim  is  to  be 
tried  and  determined  is  not  specified.  All  this  is  obviously  within  the 
control  of  each  State.  It  may  be  done  by  virtue  of  express  legislation, 
in  which  event  any  Legislature,  justly  careful  of  Personal  Liberty,  would 
surround  the  fugitive  with  every  shield  of  the  law  and  Constitution.  But 
here  a  fact,  pregnant  with  Freedom,  must  be  studiously  observed.  The 
name  Slave — that  litany  of  wrong  and  woe — does  not  appear  in  the 
clause.  Here  is  no  unambiguous  phrase,  incapable  of  a  double  sense ;  no 
"  positive  "  language,  applicable  only  to  slaves,  and  excluding  all  other 
classes ;  no  word  of  that  absolute  certainty  in  every  particular,  which 
forbids  any  interpretation  except  that  of  Slavery,  and  makes  it  impossi 
ble  "  to  catch  at  anything  in  favor  of  Liberty."  Nothing  of  this  kind 
is  here.  But  passing  from  this  ;  "  cruelly  and  impiously  "  renouncing 
for  the  moment  all  leanings  for  Freedom  ;  refusing  "  to  catch  at  any 
thing  in  favor  of  Liberty  ;  "  abandoning  the  cherished  idea  of  the 
Fathers,  that  "  It  was  wrong  to  admit  in  the  Constitution  the  idea  of 
property  in  man  ;  "  and,  in  the  face  of  these  commanding  principles, 
assuming  two  things,  first,  that,  in  the  evasive  language  of  this  clause, 
the  Convention,  whatever  may  have  been  the  aim  of  individual  mem 
bers,  really  intended  fugitive  slaves,  which  is  sometimes  questioned ; 
and,  secondly,  that,  if  they  so  intended,  the  language  employed  can  be 
judicially  regarded  as  justly  applicable  to  fugitive  slaves,  which  is  often 
and  earnestly  denied ;  then  the  whole  proceeding*  without  any  express 


THE   FINAL   CONCLUSION.  159 

legislation,  may  be  left  to  the  ancient  and  authentic  forms  of  the  com 
mon  law,  familiar  to  the  framers  of  the  Constitution  and  ample  for  the 
occasion.  If  the  fugitive  be  seized  without  process,  he  will  be  entitled 
at  once  to  his  writ  de  Homine  Replegiando,  while  the  master,  resorting 
to  process,  may  find  his  remedy  in  the  writ  de  Nativo  Habendo — each 
writ  requiring  Trial  by  Jury.  If,  from  ignorance  or  lack  of  employ 
ment,  these  processes  have  slumbered  in  our  country,  still  they  belong 
to  the  great  arsenal  of  the  common  law,  and  continue,  like  other  an 
cient  writs,  tanquam  gladium  in  vagina,  ready  to  be  employed  at  the 
first  necessity.  They  belong  to  the  safeguards  of  the  citizen.  But  in 
any  event  and  in  either  alternative  the  proceedings  would  be  by  "  suit 
at  common  law,"  with  Trial  by  Jury  ;  and  it  would  be  the  solemn  duty 
of  the  court,  according  to  all  the  forms  and  proper  delays  of  the  com 
mon  law,  to  try  the  case  on  the  evidence  ;  strictly  to  apply  all  the  pro 
tecting  rules  of  evidence,  and  especially  to  require  stringent  proof,  by 
competent  witnesses  under  cross-examination,  that  the  person  claimed 
was  held  to  service  ;  that  his  service  was  due  to  the  claimant ;  that  he 
had  escaped  iiQio.  the  State  where  such  service  was  due ;  and  also  proof 
of  the  laws  of  the  State  under  which  he  was  held.  Still  further,  to  the 
Courts  of  each  State  must  belong  the  determination  of  the  question,  to 
what  classes  of  persons,  according  to  just  rules  of  interpretation,  the 
phrase  "persons  held  to  service  or  labor  "  is  strictly  applicable. 

Such  is  this  much-debated  provision.  The  Slave  States,  at  the  forma 
tion  of  the  Constitution,  did  not  propose,  as  in  the  cases  of  Naturaliza 
tion  and  bankruptcy,  to  empower  the  National  Government  to  establish 
an  uniform  rule  for  the  rendition  of  fugitives  from  service,  throughout 
the  United  States ;  they  did  not  ask  the  National  Government  to 
charge  itself  in  any  way  with  this  service;  they  did  not  venture  to 
offend  the  country,  and  particularly  the  Northern  States,  by  any  such 
assertion  of  a  hateful  right.  They  were  content,  under  the  sanctions  of 
compact,  to  leave  it  to  the  public  sentiment  of  the  States.  There,  I 
insist,  it  shall  remain. 


XXI. 

Mr.  President,  I  have  occupied  much  time;  but  the  great  subject 
still  stretches  before  us.  One  other  point  yet  remains,  which  I  should 
not  leave  untouched,  and  which  justly  belongs  to  the  close.  The 
Slave  Act  violates  the  Constitution  and  shocks  the  Public  Conscience. 


I6O  INJUSTICE   CANNOT   COMMAND    OBEDIENCE. 

With  modesty  and  yet  with  firmness  let  me  add,  sir,  it  offends  against 
the  Divine  Law.  No  such  enactment  can  be  entitled  to  support.  As 
the  throne  of  God  is  above  every  earthly  throne,  so  are  his  laws  and 
statutes  above  all  the  laws  and  statutes  of  man.  To  question  these,  is 
to  question  God  himself.  But  to  assume  that  human  laws  are  beyond 
question,  is  to  claim  for  their  fallible  authors  infallibility.  To  assume 
that  they  are  always  in  conformity  with  the  laws  of  God,  is  presumptu 
ously  and  impiously  to  exalt  man  to  an  equality  with  God.  Clearly 
human  laws  are  not  always  in  such  conformity ;  nor  can  they  ever  be 
beyond  question  from  each  individual.  Where  the  conflict  is  open,  as 
if  Congress  should  command  the  perpetration  of  murder,  the  office  of 
conscience  as  final  arbiter  is  undisputed.  But  in  every  conflict  the 
same  Queenly  office  is  hers.  By  no  earthly  power  can  she  be  de 
throned.  Each  person,  after  anxious  examination,  without  haste,  with 
out  passion,  solemnly  for  himself  must  decide  this  great  controversy. 
Any  other  rule  attributes  infallibility  to  human  laws,  places  them 
beyond  question,  and  degrades  all  men  to  an  unthinking  passive 
obedience. 

According  to  St.  Augustine,  an  unjust  law  does  not  appear  to  be  a 
law;  lex  esse  non  videtur  qucz  justa  non  fuerit ;  and  the  great  fathers 
of  the  Church,  while  adopting  these  words,  declare  openly  that  unjust 
laws  are  not  binding.  Sometimes  they  are  called  "abuses/'  and  not 
laws;  sometimes  "violences,"  and  not  laws.  And  here  again  the  con 
science  of  each  person  is  the  final  arbiter.  But  this  lofty  principle  is 
not  confined  to  the  Church.  A  master  of  philosophy  in  early  Europe, 
a  name  of  intellectual  renown,  the  eloquent  Abelard,  in  Latin  verses 
addressed  to  his  son,  has  clearly  expressed  the  universal  injunction  : 

"  Jussa  potestatis  terrenoe  discutienda 

Ccelestis  tibi  mox  perficienda  scias. 
Siquis  divinis  jubeat  contraria  jussis 

Te  contra  Dominum  pactio  nulla  trahat." 

The  mandates  of  an  earthly  power  are  to  be  discussed ;  those  of  Hea 
ven  must  at  once  be  performed ;  nor  can  any  agreement  constrain  us 
against  God.  Such  is  the  rule  of  morals.  Such,  also,  by  the  lips  of 
judges  and  sages,  has  been  the  proud  declaration  of  the  English  law, 
whence  our  own  is  derived.  In  this  conviction  patriots  have  fearlessly 
braved  unjust  commands,  and  martyrs  have  died. 

And  now,  sir,  the  rule  is  commended  to  us.  The  good  citizen,  as  he 
thinks  of  the  shivering  fugitive, — guilty  of  no  crime, — pursued, — hunted 


DUTY   OF   DISOBEYING   THE   SLAVE   LAW.  l6l 

down  like  a  beast,  while  praying  for  Christian  help  and  deliverance, 
and  as  he  reads  the  requirements  of  this  Act,  is  filled  with  horror. 
Here  is  a  despotic  mandate,  ''  to  aid  and  assist  in  the  prompt  and  effi 
cient  execution  of  this  law."  Again  let  me  speak  frankly.  Not  rashly 
would  1  set  myself  against  any  provision  of  law.  This  grave  responsi 
bility  I  would  not  lightly  assume.  But  here  the  path  of  duty  is  clear. 
By  the  Supreme  Law,  which  commands  me  to  do  no  injustice ;  by  the 
comprehensive  Christian  Law  of  Brotherhood ;  by  the  Constitution, 
which  I  have  sworn  to  support ;  I  AM  BOUND  TO  DISOBEY  THIS  ACT. 
Never,  in  any  capacity,  can  I  render  voluntary  aid  in  its  execution. 
Pains  and  penalties  I  will  endure ;  but  this  great  wrong  I  will  not  do. 
"I  cannot  obey  ;  but  I  can  suffer,"  was  the  exclamation  of  the  author 
of  Pilgrim's  Progress,  when  imprisoned  for  disobedience  to  an  earthly 
statute.  Better  suffer  injustice  than  do  it.  Better  be  the  victim  than 
the  instrument  of  wrong.  Better  be  even  the  poor  slave,  returned  to 
bondage,  than  the  unhappy  Commissioner. 

There  is,  sir,  an  incident  of  history,  which  suggests  a  parallel,  and 
affords  a  lesson  of  fidelity.  Under  the  triumphant  exertions  of  that 
Apostolic  Jesuit,  St.  Francis  Xavier,  large  numbers  of  the  Japanese, 
amounting  to  as  many  as  two  hundred  thousand — among  them  princes, 
generals,  and  the  flower  of  the  nobility — were  converted  to  Chris 
tianity.  Afterwards,  amidst  the  frenzy  of  civil  war,  religious  persecu 
tion  arose,  and  the  penalty  of  death  was  denounced  against  all  who  re 
fused  to  trample  upon  the  effigy  of  the  Redeemer.  This  was  the 
Pagan  law  of  a  Pagan  land.  But  the  delighted  historian  records  that 
scarcely  one  from  the  multitude  of  converts  was  guilty  of  this  apostasy. 
The  law  of  man  was  set  at  naught.  Imprisonment,  torture,  death,  were 
preferred.  Thus  did  this  people  refuse  to  trample  on  the  painted 
image.  Sir,  multitudes  among  us  will  not  be  less  steadfast  in  refusing 
to  trample  on  the  living  image  of  their  Redeemer. 

XXII. 

Finally,  sir,  for  the  sake  of  peace  and  tranquillity,  cease  to  shock  the 
Public  Conscience  ;  for  the  sake  of  the  Constitution,  cease  to  exercise 
a  power  which  is  nowhere  granted,  and  which  violates  inviolable  rights 
expressly  secured.  Leave  this  question  where  it  was  left  by  our 
fathers,  at  the  formation  of  our  National  Government,  in  the  absolute 
control  of  the  States,  the  appointed  guardians  of  Personal  Liberty. 
Repeal  this  enactment.  Let  its  terrors  no  longer  rage  through  the 
ii 


162  SENATOR   KALE'S   PRAISES. 

land.  Mindful  of  the  lowly  whom  it  pursues ;  mindful  of  the  good  men 
perplexed  by  its  requirements ;  in  the  name  of  charity,  in  the  name  of 
the  Constitution,  repeal  this  enactment,  totally  and  without  delay.  Be 
inspired  by  the  example  of  Washington.  Be  admonished  by  those 
words  of  Oriental  piety — "  Beware  of  the  groans  of  the  wounded  souls. 
.Oppress  not  to  the  utmost  a  single  heart ;  for  a  solitary  sigh  has  power 
to  overset  a  whole  world." 


XXIII. 

Some  other  words  were  uttered  on  the  floor  of  the 
Senate,  after  the  delivery  of  this  speech,  which  should 
be  preserved,  since  the  speakers  have  all  passed  away. 
Mr.  HALE,  the  Senator  from  New  Hampshire,  said  : 
"  I  feel  that  I  should  be  doing  injustice  to  my  own  feel 
ings,  and  injustice  to  my  friend  the  Senator  from  Mas 
sachusetts,  if  I  were  to  fail  at  this  time  to  express  the 
very  great  gratification  with  which  I  have  listened  to 
his  speech.  If  he  were  actuated  by  as  corrupt  and  self 
ish  motives  as  can  possibly  be  attributed  to  him,  so  far 
.as  his  own  personal  fame  is  concerned  he  has  clone 
enough  by  his  effort  here  to-day,  to  place  himself  side  by 
side  with  the  first  orators  of  antiquity  ;  and  as  far  ahead 
'of  any  living  American  orator,  as  Freedom  is  ahead  of 
Slavery.  He  has  to-day  formed,  I  believe,  a  new  era  in 
the  history  of  the  politics  and  the  eloquence  of  the 
country  ;  and  in  future  generations  the  young  men  of  this 
nation  will  be  stimulated  to  effort  by  the  record  of  what 
.an  American  Senator  has  done,  to  which  all  the  appeals 
drawn  from  ancient  history  would  be  entirely  inadequate. 
He  has  to-day  made  a  draft  upon  the  gratitude  of  the 
friends  of  humanity  and  liberty  that  will  not  be  paid 
through  man%y  generations ;  but  its  memory  will  endure 
.as  long  as  the  English  language  is  spoken,  or  the  history 


SENATOR  CHASE'S  EULOGIUM.  163 

of  this  Republic  shall  form  a  part  of  the  annals  of  the 
world." 

Mr.  CHASE,  the  Senator  from  Ohio,  used  also  the  fol 
lowing  noble  language  in  adopting  the  argument  of  Mr. 
SUMNER  against  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  and  in  a  personal 
vindication  of  the  orator  himself:  "  In  the  argument 
which  my  friend  from  Massachusetts  has  addressed  to 
us  to-day,  there  was  no  assault  upon  the  Constitution. 
It  was  a  noble  vindication  of  that  great  charter  of  gov 
ernment,  from  the  perversions  of  the  advocates  of  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Act.  He  only  asserted  that  the  Fugitive 
servant  clause  of  the  Constitution  is  a  clause  of  compact 
between  the  States,  and  confers  no  legislative  power 
upon  Congress  ;  and  he  has  arrayed  history  and  reason 
in  support  of  this  proposition.  I  therefore  avow  my  con 
viction,  that  logically  and  historically,  the  argument  is 
impregnable — entirely  impregnable.  Let  me  add,  Mr. 
President,  that,  in  my  judgment,  this  speech  will  mark 
an  era  in  American  history.  It  will  distinguish  the  day 
when  the  advocates  of  that  theory  of  governmental  policy 
—Constitution  construction — which  he  has  so  nobly  de 
fended,  and  so  brilliantly  illustrated,  no  longer  content  to 
stand  on  the  defence  in  the  contest  with  Slavery,  boldly 
attacks  the  very  citadel  of  its  power,  in  that  doctrine 
of  finality  which  two  of  the  political  parties  of  the 
country,  through  their  national  organizations,  are  endeav 
oring  to  establish,  as  the  impregnable  defence  of  its 
usurpation." 

Mr.  SEWARD  happened  to  be  absent — a  fact  that  was 
very  widely  commented  on,  but  satisfactorily  explained 
to  the  minds  of  many,  by  his  feeling  constrained  to  keep 
away,  because  of  the  prominent  support  he  had  rendered, 
and  seemed  disposed  to  continue  to  render,  to  Gen. 


1 64  SEWARD,   WILSON,   AND   THE   PHILLIPS'    UNITE. 

SCOTT.  But  on  reading  the  speech,  he  wrote  to  Mr. 
SUMNER: — "Your  speech  is  an  admirable,  a  great,  a 
very  great  one.  That  is  my  opinion,  and  everybody 
around  me,  of  all  sorts,  confess  it."  * 

In  addition  to  what  he  had  already  said  in  the  Senate, 
Mr.  CHASE  also  wrote  : — "  I  have  read,  as  well  as  heard, 
your  truly  great  speech.  Hundreds  of  thousands  will 
read  it,  and  everywhere  it  will  carry  conviction  to  all 
willing  to  be  convinced,  and  will  infuse  a  feeling  of  in 
certitude  and  a  fearful  looking  for  judgment  in  the  minds 
of  those  who  resist  the  light,  and  toil  in  the  harness  of 
party  platforms,  irreconcilable  with  justice." 

Mr.  HENRY  WILSON,  who  was  afterwards  to  be  elect 
ed  to  the  Senate,  and  from  its  floor  to  its  Presidency, 
wrote : — "  I  have  read  your  glorious  speech.  How 
proud  I  am  that  God  gave  me  the  power  to  aid  in  plac 
ing  you  in  the  Senate  !  You  'have  exhausted  the  ques 
tion.  Hereafter  all  that  can  be  said  will  be  to  repeat 
your  speech.  It  will  afford  to  any  one  the  most  com 
plete  view  of  the  questions  in  dispute,  of  anything  ever 
published." 

Hon.  STEPHEN  C.  PHILLIPS,  who  had  rendered  import 
ant  aid  in  organizing  the  free-soil  party,  in  Massachu 
setts,  wrote  : — "  I  regard  it  as  a  contribution  of  inestima 
ble  value  to  our  noble  cause,  worth  all  the  labor,  all  the 
time,  all  the  self-sacrifice,  and  all  the  misrepresentations 
it  has  cost  you.  It  is  statesmanlike  in  all  its  features,  and 
does  all  that  is  necessary  to  place  our  simple  and  entire 
design  in  its  true  light  before  the  country,  and  before 
the  world,  and  in  the  records  of  history." 

Although  Mr.  WENDELL  PHILLIPS  differed  with  Mr. 
SUMNER  on  some  points,  he  nevertheless  wrote : — "  I 
have  read  your  speech  with  envious  admiration.  It  is 


EUROPEAN   OPINIONS   OF   THE   SPEECH.  l6$ 

admirable,  both  as  a  masterly  argument,  and  a  noble  tes 
timony  that  will  endear  you  to  thousands." 

There  were  some  millions  of  copies  of  this  speech  cir 
culated  through  America  and  in  Europe  by  the  journals, 
and  in  multiplied  editions  in  large  pamphlet  form,  both  at 
home  and  abroad,  to  the  extent  of  several  hundred 
thousand  copies.  In  his  preface  to  the  English  edition 
of "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  LORD  CARLISLE  associated 
Mr.  SUMNER'S  speech  with  that  work,  speaking  of  "  the 
closeness  of  its  logic,  and  the  masculine  vigor  of  its 
eloquence."  In  a  letter  to  the  London  Times,  LORD 
SHAFTESBURY  exclaimed,  "  What  noble  eloquence !  " 
And  the  distinguished  phrenologist,  Mr.  COMBE,  in  a 
letter  to  a  celebrated  American,  which  was  soon  after 
wards  published,  remarked  : — "  I  have  read  every  word 
of  this  speech,  with  pleasure  and  with  pain.  The  pain 
arose  from  the  subject — the  pleasure  from  sympathy 
with,  and  admiration  of,  the  speaker.  I  have  long  de 
sired  to  know  the  merits  of  that  most  cruel  and  iniqui 
tous  enactment,  and  this  speech  has  made  them  clear  as 
day." 

The  effect  of  this  speech,  great  as  it  evidently  was 
at  the  time,  was  far  greater  than  could  then  possibly  be 
conceived.  Wherever  it  was  read,  it  set  people  to 
thinking :  its  appeals  to  the  judgment  and  reason  of 
citizens  could  not  be  resisted  :  it  insensibly  colored  the 
thoughts  of  every  thinking  man  :  it  gave  a  new,  fresh, 
and  irreversible  interpretation  of  the  letter  of  the  Con 
stitution  ;  while  it  breathed  all  through  its  flaming 
utterances  the  very  soul  of  the  liberty  achieved  by  our 
fathers.  After  its  delivery,  the  Free-Soil  party  was 
looked  upon  as  the  national  party.  The  allegations  of 
sectionalism  lost  their  force :  it  was  slavery  that  was 


l66  DOWNING,   THE   LANDSCAPE    GARDENER. 

now  branded  as  sectional,  local,  narrow,  hostile  to  the 
Constitution,  as  well  as  inimical  to  liberty  itself.  It  did,  as 
Mr.  Chase  had  said,  constitute  a  new  era  in  American 
history ;  and  future  times  will  probably  regard  it  as  the 
grandest  contribution  that  has  been  made  to  the  spirit 
of  American  nationality  and  freedom,  since  the  De 
claration  of  Independence. 

XXIV. 

But  Mr.  SUMNER'S  mind  was  not  entirely  absorbed  in 
such  grave  themes.  He  had  a  lively  sympathy  with  the 
progress  of  the  Fine  Arts,  and  with  the  welfare  of  men 
of  genius.  He  cordially  embraced  every  opportunity  to 
encourage  whatever  exalts  and  embellishes  refined  life. 
Downing,  the  Landscape  Gardener,  had  died  soon  after 
he  took  charge  of  the  public  grounds  of  the  Capital, 
and  on  the  presentation  of  a  resolution  to  make  some  al 
lowance  to  his  widow,  Mr.  Sumner  said  : 

Mr.  President :  The  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire  ;  and  I  believe  at 
this  moment  there  is  no  question  of  charity  to  the  widow  of  the  late  Mr. 
Downing.  The  simple  proposition  is  to  make  compensation  for  ser 
vices  rendered  to  the  United  States  by  this  eminent  artist  as  superin 
tendent  of  the  public  grounds  in  Washington.  And,  since  the  plans  he 
has  left  behind  and  the  impulses  he  has  given  to  improvements  here  by 
his  incomparable  genius  will  continue  to  benefit  us,  though  he  has  been 
removed,  it  is  thought  reasonable  to  continue  his  salary  to  the  close  of 
the  unexpired  year  from  which  it  commenced.  These  plans  alone  have 
been  valued  at  five  thousand  dollars,  and  we  are  to  have  the  advantage 
of  them.  In  pursuance  of  these,  his  successor  will  be  able  to  proceed 
in  arranging  the  public  grounds,  and  in  embellishing  the  national  capital, 
without  any  further  expenditure  to  procure  others  instead.  Thus,  as  I 
said  at  the  outset,  it  is  not  a  question  of  charity,  but  of  compensation  ; 
and  on  this  ground  I  submit  that  the  estate  of  the  departed  artist  de 
serves  the  small  pittance  which  it  is  proposed  to  supply.  For  myself, 


ADDRESSZS   THE   FREE-SOIL   CONVENTION.  l6/ 

I  should  be  much  happier  to  vote  for  a  larger  appropriation,  believing 
that,  over  and  above  the  services  actually  rendered  in  the  discharge  of 
his  duties,  these  plans  are  amply  worth  it,  and  that  we  shall  all  feel  bet 
ter  by  such  a  recognition  of  our  debt 

Few  men  in  the  public  service  have  vindicated  a  title  to  regard  above 
Mr.  Downing.  At  the  age  of  thirty-seven  he  has  passed  away,  "  dead 
ere  his  prime"— like  Lycidas,  also,  "  stretched  on  a  watery  bier" — leav 
ing  behind  a  reputation  above  that  of  any  other  citizen  in  the  beautiful 
department  of  art  to  which  he  Wets  devoted.  His  labors  and  his  example 
cannot  be  forgotten.  I  know  of  no  man  among  us,  in  any  sphere  of 
life,  so  young  as  he  was  at  his  death,  who  has  been  able  to  perform  ser 
vices  of  such  true,  simple  and  lasting  beneficence.  By  his  wide  and  ac 
tive  superintendence  of  rural  improvements,  by  his  labors  of  the  pen, 
and  by  the  various  exercise  of  his  genius,  he  has  contributed  essentially 
to  the  sum  of  human  happiness.  And  now,  sir,  by  practical  services 
here  in  Washington,  rendered  at  the  call  of  his  country,  he  has  earned, 
it  seems  to  me,  this  small  appropriation — not  as  a  charity  to  his  desolate 
widow,  but  as  a  compensation  for  labor  done.  I  hope  the  amendment 
will  be  agreed  to. 

XXV. 

On  his  return  to  Boston,,  after  the  memorable  session 
of  1851-2,  the  warmest  welcome  was  extended  to  him  from 
every  quarter.  In  addressing  the  State  Convention  of 
the  Free-Soil  Party  of  Massachusetts,  held  at  Lowell, 
on  the  1 6th  of  September,  1852,  he  delivered  one  of  his 
most  striking  speeches,  some  portions  of  which  we 
reproduce.  It  was  on  the  eve  of  the  national  election. 

MR.  PRESIDENT  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  : — I 
should  be  dull  indeed  were  I  insensible  to  this  generous,  overflowing, 
heart-speaking  welcome.  After  an  absence  of  many  months,  I  have 
now  come  home,  to  breathe  anew  the  invigorating  Northern  air,  to 
tread  again  the  free  soil  of  our  native  Massachusetts,  and  to  enjoy  the 
sympathy  of  friends  and  fellow-citizens.  But,  while  glad  in  your  greet 
ings,  thus  bounteously  lavished,  I  cannot  accept  them  for  myself.  I  do 
not  deserve  them.  They  belong  to  the  cause  which  we  all  have  at 
heart,  and  which  binds  us  together. 


l68  OLD    PARTIES   PRO-SLAVERY. 

Against  Freedom  both  the  old  parties  are  now  banded.  Opposed 
to  each  other  in  the  contest  for  power,  they  concur  in  opposing  every 
effort  for  the  establishment  of  Freedom  under  the  National  Constitu 
tion.  Divided  as  parties,  they  are  one  as  supporters  of  slavery.  On 
this  question  we  can  have  no  sympathy  with  either  ;  but  must  neces 
sarily  be  against  both.  They  sustain  slavery  in  the  District  of  Colum 
bia  ;  we  are  against  it.  They  sustain  the  coastwise  slave  trade  under 
the  National  Flag ;  we  abhor  it.  They  sustain  the  policy  of  silence  on 
Slavery  in  the  territories  ;  we  urge  the  voice  of  positive  prohibition. 
They  sustain  that  paragon  of  legislative  monsters — unconstitutional,  un- 
unchristian  and  infamous — the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  ;  we  insist  on  its  re 
peal.  They  concede  to  the  Slave  Power  new  life  and  protection ;  we 
cannot  be  content  except  with  its  total  destruction.  Such,  fellow-citi 
zens,  is  the  difference  between  us. 

And  now,  if  here  in  Massachusetts,  there  be  any  persons,  who,  on 
grounds  of  policy  or  conscience,  feel  impelled  to  support  slavery,  let 
them  go  and  sink  in  the  embrace  of  the  old  parties.  There  they  be 
long.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  all  who  are  sincerely  opposed  to  slavery 
— who  desire  to  act  against  it — who  seek  to  bear  their  testimony  for 
Freedom, — who  long  to  carry  into  public  affairs  those  principles  of 
morality  and  Christian  duty  which  are  the  rule  of  private  life, — let  them 
come  out  from  both  the  old  parties,  and  join  us.  In  our  third  party, 
with  the  declared  friends  of  Freedom,  they  will  find  a  place  in  harmony 
with  their  aspirations. 

But  there  is  one  apology,  which  is  common  to  the  supporters  of  both 
the  old  parties,  and  which  is  often  in  their  mouths  when  pressed  for 
their  inconsistent  persistence  in  adhering  to  these  parties.  It  is  dog 
matically  asserted  that  there  can  be  but  two  parties ;  that  a  third  party 
is  impossible,  particularly  in  our  country,  and  that,  therefore,  all  per 
sons,  however  opposed  to  Slavery,  must  be  content  in  one  of  the  old 
parties.  This  assumption,  which  is  without  any  foundation  in  reason, 
has  been  so  often  put  forth,  that  it  has  acquired  a  certain  currency  ; 
and  many,  who  reason  hastily,  or  who  implicitly  follow  others,  have 
adopted  it  as  the  all-sufficient  excuse  for  their  conduct.  Confessing 
their  own  opposition  to  slavery,  they  yet  yield  to  the  domination  of 
party,  and  become  dumb.  All  this  is  wrong  morally,  and,  therefore, 
must  be  wrong  practically. 

Party,  in  its  true  estate,  is  the  natural  expression  and  agency  of  dif 
ferent  forms  of  opinion  on  important  public  questions  ;  and  itself  as 
sumes  different  forms  precisely  according  to  the  prevalence  of  different 


NEW   PARTIES   ALWAYS    TRIUMPH.  169 

opinions.  Thus  in  the  early  Italian  republics  there  were  for  a  while 
the  factions  of  the  Guelphs  and  Ghibellins,  supporters  of  the  Pope  and 
the  Emperor;  also  of  the  Whites  and  the  Blacks,  taking  their  names 
from  the  color  of  their  respective  badges,  and  in  England,  the  two  fac 
tions  of  the  white  and  red  roses,  in  which  was  involved  the  succession 
to  the  crown.  But  in  all  these  cases  the  party  came  into  being,  died 
out,  or  changed  with  the  prevailing  sentiment  If  there  be  in  a  com 
munity  only  two  chief  antagonist  opinions,  then  there  will  be  but  two 
parties,  embodying  these  opinions.  But  as  other  opinions  practically 
prevail  and  seek  vent,  so  must  parties  change  or  multiply.  This  is  so 
strongly  the  conclusion  of  reason  and  philosophy,  that  it  could  not  be 
doubted,  even  if  there  were  no  examples  of  such  change  and  multipli 
cation.  But  we  need  only  turn  to  the  recent  history  of  France  and 
England,  the  two  countries  where  opinion  has  had  the  freest  scope  to 
find  such  examples. 

Thus,  for  instance,  in  France — and  I  dwell  on  this  point  because  I 
have  observed  myself,  in  conversation,  that  it  is  of  practical  importance 
—under  Louis  Philippe,  anterior  to  the  late  Republic,  there  was  the 
party  of  Legitimists,  supporters  of  the  old  branch  of  Bourbons;  the 
party  of  Orleanists,  supporters  of  the  existing  throne  ;  these  two  cor 
responding  at  the  time  in  relative  rank  and  power  to  our  Whigs  and 
Democrats.  But  besides  these,  there  was  a  third  party,  the  small  band 
of  republicans,  represented  in  the  legislature  by  a  few  persons  only,  but 
strong  in  principles  and  purposes,  which  in  February,  1848,  prevailed 
over  both  the  others.  On  the  establishment  of  the  Republic  the  mul 
tiplicity  of  parties  continued  until,  with  the  freedom  of  opinion  and  the 
freedom  of  the  press,  all  were  equally  overthrown  by  Louis  Napoleon, 
and  their  place  supplied  by  the  enforced  unity  of  despotism. 

In  England,  the  most  important  measure  of  recent  reform,  the  aboli 
tion  of  the  laws  imposing  a  protective  duty  on  corn,  was  carried  only 
by  a  third  party.  Neither  of  the  two  old  parties  could  be  brought  to 
adopt  this  measure  and  press  it  to  a  consummation.  A  powerful  public 
opinion,  thus  thwarted  in  the  regular  channel,  found  an  outlet  in 
another  party,  which  was  neither  Whig  nor  Tory,  but  which  was  formed 
from  both  these  parties,  and  wherein  Sir  Robert  Peel,  the  great  Con 
servative  leader,  took  his  place,  side  by  side,  in  honorable  coalition, 
with  Mr.  Cobden,  the  great  Liberal  leader.  In  this  way  the  Corn  Laws 
were  finally  overthrown.  The  multiplicity  of  parties  in  England,  en 
gendered  by  this  contest,  still  continues.  At  the  general  election  for 
the  new  Parliament  which  has  just  taken  place,  the  strict  lines  of 


Ti:E   RISING   PARTY    OF   FREEDOM. 

ancient  parties  seemed  to  be  effaced,  and  many  were  returned,  not  as 
Whigs  and  Tories,  but  as  Protectionists  and  anti-Protectionists. 

Thus,  by  example  in  our  own  day  we  may  confirm  the  principle  of 
political  philosophy,  that  parties  must  naturally  adapt  themselves  in 
character  and  number  to  the  prevailing  public  opinion. 

Now  at  the  present  time  in  our  country,  there  exists  a  deep  controll 
ing  conscientious  feeling  against  Slavery.  You  and  I,  sir,  and  all  of  us 
confess  it.  While  recognizing  the  Constitution,  we  desire  to  do  every 
thing  in  our  power  to  relieve  ourselves  of  responsibility  for  this  terrible 
wrong.  We  would  vindicate  the  Constitution  and  the  National 
Government  which  it  has  established,  from  all  participation  in  this  out 
rage.  Both  the  old  political  parties,  forgetful  of  the  sentiments  of  the 
Fathers  and  of  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution,  not  only  refuse  to  be  in 
any  degree  the  agents  or  representatives  of  our  convictions,  but  ex 
pressly  discourage  and  denounce  them.  Thus  baffled  in  their  efforts  for 
utterance,  these  convictions  naturally  seek  expression  in  a  new  agency, 
the  party  of  Freedom.  Such  is  the  party,  which,  representing  the  great 
doctrines  of  Human  Rights,  as  enunciated  in  our  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence,  and  inspired  truly  by  the  Democratic  sentiment,  is  now 
assembled  here  under  the  name  of  the  Free  Democracy. 

The  rising  public  opinion  against  Slavery  cannot  now  flow  in  the  old 
political  channels.  It  is  strangled,  clogged,  and  dammed  back.  But  if 
not  through  the  old  parties,  then  over  the  old  parties,  this  irresistible 
current  shall  find  its  way.  It  cannot  be  permanently  stopped.  If  the 
old  parties  will  not  become  its  organ,  they  must  become  its  victim. 
The  party  of  Freedom  will  certainly  prevail.  It  may  be  by  entering 
into,  and  possessing  one  of  the  old  parties,  filling  it  with  our  own  strong 
life  ;  or  it  may  be  by  drawing  from  both  to  itself  the  good  and  true  who 
are  unwilling  to  continue  members  of  any  political  combination  when 
it  ceases  to  represent  their  convictions.  But,  in  one  way  or  the  other, 
its  ultimate  triumph  is  sure.  Of  this  let  no  man  doubt. 

At  this  moment  we  are  in  a  minority.  At  the  last  popular  election 
in  Massachusetts,  there  were  twenty-eight  thousand  Free-Soilers,  forty- 
three  thousand  Democrats,  and  sixty-four  thousand  Whigs.  But  this  is 
no  reason  for  discouragement.  According  to  recent  estimates,  the  pop 
ulation  of  the  whole  world  amounts  to  about  eight  hundred  millions.  Of 
these  only  two  hundred  and  sixty  millions  are  Christians,  while  the  re 
maining  five  hundred  and  forty  millions  are  mainly  Mahometans,  Brah 
mins  and  Idolaters.  Because  the  Christians  are  in  this  minority,  that  is 
no  reason  for  renouncing  Christianity  and  for  surrendering  to  the  false 


COURSES   OF    FREE-SOIL   LECTURES.  I /I 

religions  ;  nor  do  we  doubt  that  Christianity  will  yet  prevail  over  the 
whole  earth,  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea.  The  friends  of  Freedom  in 
Massachusetts  are  likewise  in  a  minority  ;  but  they  will  not,  therefore, 
renounce  Freedom,  nor  surrender  to  the  political  Mahometans  and  idol 
aters  of  Baltimore ;  nor  can  they  doubt  that  their  cause,  like  Christi 
anity,  will  yet  prevail. 

Our  cause  commends  itself.  But  it  is  also  commended  by  our  candi 
dates.  In  all  that  makes  the  eminent  civilian  or  the  accomplished 
statesman  fit  for  the  responsibilities  of  government,  they  will  proudly 
compare  with  any  of  their  competitors,  while  they  are  dear  to  our  hearts 
as  able,  well-tried,  loyal  supporters  of  those  vital  principles  of  Freedom 
which  we  seek  to  establish  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 
In  the  Senate,  Mr.  Hale  is  admitted  to  be  foremost  in  aptitude  and 
readiness  of  debate,  whether  in  the  general  legislation  of  the  country, 
or  in  the  constant  and  valiant  championship  of  otir  cause.  His  genial 
and  sun-like  nature  irradiates  the  antagonism  of  political  controversy, 
while  his  active  and  practical  mind,  richly  stored  with  various  experi 
ence,  never  fails  to  render  good  service. 

Of  Mr.  Julian,  our  candidate  for  the  Vice-Presidency,  let  me  say 
simply  that,  in  ability  and  devotion  to  our  principles,  he  is  a  worthy 
compeer  of  Mr.  Hale.  To  vote  for  such  men  will  itself  be  a  pleasure. 
But  it  will  be  doubly  so  when  we  reflect  that  in  this  way  we  bear  our 
testimony  to  a  noble  cause,  with  which  the  happiness,  welfare  and  fame 
of  our  country  are  indissolubly  connected. 

With  such  a  cause  and  such  candidates,  let  no  man  be  disheartened. 
The  tempest  may  blow,  but  ours  is  a  life-boat  which  cannot  be  harmed 
by  wind  or  wave.  The  genius  of  Liberty  sits  at  the  helm.  I  hear  her 
voice  of  cheer  saying,  "  Whoso  sails  with  me  comes  to  shore." 

XXVI. 

The  members  of  the  Free-Soil  party,  in  New  York 
and  Boston  particularly,  had  organized  courses  of  lectures 
on  the  Slavery  question  for  the  first  time,  to  be  delivered 
in  those  cities ;  and  their  example  was  followed  through 
out  the  whole  North.  Mr.  SUMNER  delivered  the  closing 
Lecture  of  the  New  York  Course  at  the  Metropolitan 
Theatre  on  the  9th  of  May,  1855.  The  chair  was  oc- 


1/2  SUMNER   AT   METROPOLITAN   THEATRE. 

cupied  by  Hon.  WILLIAM  JAY,  who  introduced  the  speaker 
in  the  following  words  : 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  :  I  have  been  requested,  on  the  part  of  the 
Society,  to  perform  the  pleasing  but  unnecessary  office  of  introducing 
to  you  the  honored  and  well-known  advocate  of  Justice,  Humanity  and 
Freedom,  Charles  Sumner.  It  is  not  for  his  learning  and  eloquence 
that  I  commend  him  to  your  respectful  attention  ;  for  learning,  elo 
quence,  and  even  theology  itself,  have  been  prostituted  in  the  service 
of  an  institution  well  described  by  John  Wesley  as  the  sum  of  all  villa- 
nies.  I  introduce  him  to  you  as  a  Northern  Senator  on  whom  nature 
has  conferred  the  unusual  gift  of  a  backbone — a  man  who,  standing 
erect  on  the  floor  of  Congress,  amid  creeping  things  from  the  North, 
with  Christian  fidelity  denounces  the  stupendous  wickedness  of  the 
Fugitive  Law  and  Nebraska  perfidy,  and  in  the  name  of  Liberty,  Hu 
manity  and  Religion,  demands  the  repeal  of  those  most  atrocious 
enactments.  May  the  words  he  is  about  to  utter  be  impressed  on  your 
consciences,  and  influence  your  conduct ! 

History  abounds  in  vicissitudes.  From  weakness  and  humility,  men 
ascend  to  power  and  place.  From  defeat  and  disparagement,  enter 
prises  are  lifted  to  triumph  and  acceptance.  The  martyr  of  to-day  is 
gratefully  enshrined  on  the  morrow.  The  stone  that  the  builders  re 
jected  is  made  the  head  of  the  corner.  Thus  it  always  has  been,  and 
ever  will  be. 

Only  twenty  years  ago, — in  1835, — the  friends  of  the  slave  in  our 
country  were  weak  and  humble,  while  their  great  Enterprise,  just  then 
showing  itself,  was  trampled  down  and  despised.  The  small  companies, 
gathered  together  in  the  name  of  Freedom,  were  interrupted  and  often 
dispersed  by  riotous  mobs.  At  Boston,  a  feeble  association  of  women, 
called  the  Female  Anti-Slavery  Society,  convened  in  a  small  room  of 
an  upper  story  in  an  obscure  building,  was  insulted  and  then  driven  out 
of  doors  by  a  frantic  crowd,  politely  termed  at  the  time  an  assemblage 
of  "  gentlemen  of  property  and  standing,"  which,  after  various  deeds 
of  violence  and  vileness,  next  directed  itself  upon  William  Lloyd  Gar 
rison, — known  as  the  determined  editor  of  the  Liberator,  and  the  origi 
nator  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Enterprise  in  our  day, — then  ruthlessly  tearing 
him  away,  amidst  savage  threats  and  with  a  halter  about  his  neck,  drag 
ged  him  through  the  streets,  until,  at  last,  guilty  only  of  loving  liberty,  if 
not  wisely,  too  well,  this  unoffending  citizen  was  thrust  into  the  com 
mon  jail  for  protection  against  an  infuriated  populace.  Nor  was  Boston 
alone.  Even  villages,  in  remote  rural  solitude,  belched  forth  in  similar 
outrage  ;  while  the  large  towns,  like  Providence,  New  Haven,  Utica, 


CHANGE   WROUGHT   IN   TWENTY   YEARS.  1/3 

Worcester,  Alton,  Cincinnati,  Baltimore,  Philadelphia  and  New  York, 
became  so  many  fiery  craters,  overflowing  with  rage  and  madness.  What 
lawless  violence  failed  to  accomplish  was  next  urged  through  the  forms  of 
law.  By  solemn  legislative  acts,  the  Slave  States  called  on  the  Free  States 
"  promptly  and  effectually  to  suppress  all  associations  within  their  re 
spective  limits  purporting  to  be  Abolition  Societies  ;"  and  Rhode  Island, 
Massachusetts,  and  New  York  basely  hearkened  to  the  base  proposition. 
The  press,  too,  with  untold  power,  exerted  itself  in  this  behalf,  while 
the  pulpit,  the  politician,  and  the  merchant  conspired  to  stifle  discussion, 
until  the  voice  of  Freedom  was  hushed  to  a  whisper,  "  alas  !  almost 
afraid  to  know  itself." 

Since  then — in  the  lapse  of  a  few  years  only — a  change  has  taken 
place.  Instead  of  those  small  companies,  counted  by  tens,  we  have 
now  this  mighty  assembly,  counted  by  thousands  ;  instead  of  an  insig 
nificant  apartment,  like  that  in  Boston,  the  mere  appendage  of  a  print 
ing-office,  where,  as  in  the  manger  itself,  Truth  was  cradled,  we  have 
now  this  Metropolitan  Hall,  ample  in  proportions  and  central  in  place  ; 
instead  of  a  profane  and  clamorous  mob.  beating  at  our  gates,  dispersing 
our  assembly,  and  making  one  of  our  number  the  victim  of  its  fury,  we 
have  now  peace  and  harmony  at  unguarded  doors,  ruffled  only  by  a 
generous  competition  to  participate  in  this  occasion  ;  while  legislatures 
openly  declare  their  sympathies ;  villages,  towns  and  cities  vie  in  the 
new  manifestation ;  and  the  press  itself,  with  increased  power,  heralds, 
applauds  and  extends  the  prevailing  influence,  which,  overflowing  from 
every  fountain,  and  pouring  through  every  channel,  at  last,  by  the 
awakened  voice  of  pulpit,  politician  and  merchant,  swells  into  an  irre 
pressible  cry. 

Here  is  a  great  change,  worthy  of  notice  and  memory,  for  it  attests 
the  first  stage  of  victory.  Slavery,  in  all  its  many-sided  wrong,  still  con 
tinues  ;  but  here  in  this  metropolis, — ay,  sir,  and  throughout  the  whole 
North, — freedom  of  discussion  is  at  length  secured.  And  this,  I  say,  is 
the  first  stage  of  victory — herald  of  the  transcendant  Future  : 

"  Hark  !  a  glad  voice  the  lonely  desert  cheers  ; 
Prepare  the  way  !  a  God,  a  God  appears  ! 
A  God  !  a  God  !  the  vocal  hills  reply, 
The  rocks  proclaim  th'  approaching  Deity." 

Nor  is  there  anything  peculiar  in  the  trials  to  which  our  cause  has  been 
exposed.  Thus  in  all  ages  has  Truth  been  encountered.  At  first  per 
secuted,  gagged,  silenced,  crucified,  she  has  cried  out  from  the  prison, 


174  SPECIAL  DUTIES  OF  THE  NORTH. 

from  the  torture,  from  the  stake,  from  the  cross,  until  at  last  her  voice 
has  been  heard.  And  when  that  voice  is  really  heard,  whether  in  mar 
tyr  cries,  or  in  the  earthquake  tones  of  civil  convulsion,  or  in  the  calm 
ness  of  ordinary  speech,  such  as  I  now  employ,  or  in  that  still  small 
utterance  inaudible  to  the  common  ear,  then  is  the  beginning  of  victory  ! 
"  Give  me  where  to  stand,  and  I  will  move  the  world,"  said  Archimedes  ; 
and  Truth  asks  no  more  than  did  the  master  of  geometry. 

XXVII. 

My  subject  will  be  THE  NECESSITY,  PRACTICABILITY,  AND  DIGNITY 
OF  THE  ANTI-SLAVERY  ENTERPRISE,  WITH  GLIMPSES  AT  THE  SPECIAL 
DUTIES  OF  THE  NORTH.  By  this  enterprise  I  do  not  mean  the  efforts 
of  any  restricted  circle,  sect,  or  party,  but  the  cause  of  the  slave,  in  all 
its  forms  and  degrees,  and  under  all  its  names, — whether  inspired  by 
the  pulpit,  the  press,  the  economist,  or  the  politician, — whether  in  the 
early,  persistent,  and  comprehensive  demands  of  Garrison,  the  gentler 
utterances  of  Channing,  or  the  strictly  constitutional  endeavors  of 
others  now  actually  sharing  the  public  councils  of  the  country.  To 
carry  through  this  review,  under  its  different  heads,  I  shall  not  hesitate 
to  meet  the  objections  which  have  been  urged  against  it,  so  far  at  least 
as  I  am  aware  of  them.  And  now,  as  I  speak  to  you  seriously,  I  ven 
ture  to  ask  your  serious  attention  even  to  the  end.  Not  easily  can  a 
public  address  reach  that  highest  completeness  which  is  found  in  min 
gling  the  useful  and  the  agreeable  ;  but  I  desire  to  say,  that,  in  this  ar 
rangement  and  co-ordination  of  my  remarks  to-night,  I  seek  to  cultivate 
that  highest  courtesy  of  a  speaker,  which  is  found  in  clearness. 

I.  I  begin  with  the  NECESSITY  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Enterprise.  In 
the  wrong  of  Slavery,  as  defined  by  existing  law,  this  necessity  is  plainly 
apparent ;  nor  can  any  man  within  the  sound  of  my  voice,  who  listens 
to  the  authentic  words  of  the  law,  hesitate  in  my  conclusion.  A  wrong 
so  grievous  and  unquestionable  should  not  be  allowed  to  continue. 
For  the  honor  of  human  nature,  and  for  the  good  of  all  concerned,  // 
should  at  once  cease  to  exist.  On  this  simple  statement,  as  a  corner 
stone,  I  found  the  necessity  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Enterprise. 

I  do  not  dwell,  sir,  on  the  many  tales  which  come  from  the  house  of 
bondage  ;  on  the  bitter  sorrows  there  undergone  ;  on  the  flesh,  galled 
by  the  manacle  or  spirting  blood  beneath  the  lash ;  on  the  human  form 
mutilated  by  the  knife,  or  seared  by  red-hot  iron  ;  on  the  ferocious 
scent  of  blood-hounds  in  chase  of  human  prey ;  on  the  sale  of  fathers 


NECESSITY   OF  THE   ANTI-SLAVERY  ENTERPRISE.         175 

and  mothers,  husbands  and  wives,  brothers  and  sisters,  little  children — 
ever  infants — at  the  auction-block  ;  on  the  practical  prostration  of  all 
rights,  all  ties,  and  even  all  hope  ;  on  the  deadly  injury  to  morals,  sub 
stituting  concubinage  for  marriage,  and  changing  the  whole  land  of 
Slavery  into  a  by-word  of  shame,  only  fitly  pictured  by  the  language  of 
Dante  when  he  called  his  own  degraded  country  a  House  of  Ill-Fame  ; 
and  last  of  all,  on  the  pernicious  influence  upon  the  master  as  well  as 
the  slave,  showing  itself  too  often,  even  by  his  own  confession,  in  rude 
ness  of  manners  and  character,  and  especially  in  that  blindness  which 
renders  him  insensible  to  the  wrongs  he  upholds,  while  he, 

" so  perfect  is  his  misery, 

Not  once  perceives  his  foul  disfigurement, 
But  boasts  himself  more  comely  than  before." 

On  these  things  I  do  not  dwell,  although  volumes  are  at  hand  of  un 
questionable  facts  and  of  illustrative  story,  so  just  and  happy  as  to  vie 
with  fact,  out  of  which  I  might  draw,  until,  like  Macbeth,  you  had 
supped  full  of  horrors. 

But  all  these  I  put  aside  ;  not  because  I  do  not  regard  them  of 
moment  in  exhibiting  the  true  character  of  Slavery,  but  because  I 
desire  to  present  this  argument  on  grounds  above  all  controversy, 
impeachment,  or  suspicion,  even  from  slave-masters  themselves.  Not 
on  triumphant  story,  not  even  on  indisputable  facts,  do  I  now  accuse 
Slavery,  but  on  its  character,  as  revealed  in  its  own  simple  definition  of 
itself.  Out  of  its  own  mouth  do  I  condemn  it.  By  the  law  of  Slavery ', 
man,  created  in  the  image  of  God,  is  divested  of  his  human  character, 
and  declared  to  be  a  mere  chattel.  That  this  statement  may  not  seem 
to  be  put  forward  without  precise  authority,  I  quote  the  law  of  two 
different  States.  The  civil  code  of  Louisiana  thus  defines  a  slave  : 

"  A  slave  is  one  who  is  in  the  power  of  a  master  to  whom  he  belongs. 
The  master  may  sell  him,  dispose  of  his  person,  his  industry,  and  his 
labor.  He  can  do  nothing,  possess  nothing,  nor  acquire  anything  but 
what  must  belong  to  his  master." — Civil  Code,  Art.  35. 

The  law  of  another  polished  slave  State  gives  this  definition  : 

"  Slaves  shall  be  deemed,  sold,  taken,  reputed  and  adjudged  in  law 
to  be  chattels  personal,  in  the  hands  of  their  owners  and  possessors, 
and  their  executors,  administrators  and  assigns,  to  all  intents,  con 
structions  and  purposes  whatsoever."  —  2  Brev.  Dig.  229.  (South 
Carolina. ) 

And  a  careful  writer,  Judge  Stroud,  in  a  work  of  juridical  as  well  as 
philanthropic  merit,  thus  sums  up  the  law  : 


i;6  THE   LAW   OF   SLAVERY. 

"  The  cardinal  principle  of  Slavery — that  the  slave  is  not  to  be 
ranked  among  sentient  beings,  but  among  things — is  an  article  of 
property — a  chattel  personal — obtains  as  undoubted  law  in  all  of  these 
(the  slave)  States." — Stroutfs  Laws  of  Slavery,  22. 

Sir,  this  is  enough.  As  out  of  its  small  egg  crawls  forth  the  slimy, 
scaly,  reptile  crocodile,  so  out  of  this  simple  definition  crawls  forth  the 
whole  slimy,  scaly,  reptile  monstrosity,  by  which  a  man  is  changed 
into  a  chattel, — a  person  is  converted  imo  a  thing, — a  soul  is  trans 
muted  into  merchandise.  According  to  this  very  definition,  the  slave 
is  held  simply  for  the  good  of  his  master,  to  whose  behests,  his  life, 
liberty  and  happiness  are  devoted,  and  by  whom  he  may  be  bartered, 
leased,  mortgaged,  bequeathed,  invoiced,  shipped  as  cargo,  stored  as 
goods,  sold  on  execution,  knocked  off  at  public  auction,  and  even 
staked  at  the  gaming-table  on  the  hazard  of  a  card  or  die.  The  slave 
may  seem  to  have  a  wife  ;  but  he  has  not ;  for  his  wife  belongs  to  his 
master.  He  may  seem  to  have  a  child  ;  but  he  has  not ;  for  his  child 
belongs  to  his  master.  He  may  be  filled  with  the  desire  of  knowledge, 
opening  to  him  the  gates  of  hope  on  earth  and  in  heaven  ;  but  the  master 
may  impiously  close  this  sacred  pursuit.  Thus  is  he  robbed  not  merely 
of  priyileges,  but  of  himself;  not  merely  of  money  and  labor,  but  of 
wife  and  children  ;  not  merely  of  time  and  opportunity,  but  of  every 
assurance  of  happiness  ;  not  merely  of  earthly  hope,  but  of  all  those 
divine  aspirations  that  spring  from  the  Fountain  of  Light.  He  is  not 
merely  restrained  in  liberty,  but  totally  deprived  of  it ;  not  merely 
curtailed  in  rights,  but  absolutely  stripped  of  them  ;  not  merely  loaded 
with  burdens,  but  changed  into  a  beast  of  burden  ;  not  merely  bent 
in  countenance  to  the  earth,  but  sunk  to  the  legal  level  of  a  quadruped  ; 
not  merely  exposed  to  personal  cruelty,  but  deprived  of  his  character 
as  a  person- ;  not  merely  compelled  to  involuntary  labor,  but  degraded 
to  be  a  rude  thing ;  not  merely  shut  out  from  knowledge,  but  wrested 
from  his  place  in  the  human  family.  And  all  this,  sir,  is  according  to 
the  simple  law  of  Slavery. 

Nor  is  even  this  all.  The  law,  by  cumulative  provisions,  positively 
forbids  that  a  slave  shall  be  taught  to  read.  Hear  this,  fellow-citizens, 
and  confess,  that  no  barbarism  of  despotism,  no  extravagance  of  tyranny, 
no  excess  of  impiety  can  be  more  blasphemous  or  deadly.  "  Train  up 
a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go,"  is  the  lesson  of  sacred  wisdom ;  but 
the  law  of  Slavery  boldly  prohibits  any  such  training,  and  dooms  the 
child  to  hopeless  ignorance  and  degradation.  "  Let  there  be  light,"  was 


AN   OUTRAGE   ON   MAN   AND    GOD.  177 

the  Divine  utterance  at  the  very  dawn  of  creation, — and  this  command 
ment,  travelling  with  the  ages  and  the  hours,  still  speaks  with  the  voice 
of  God  ;  but  the  law  of  Slavery  says,  "  Let  there  be  darkness." 

But  it  is  earnestly  averred  that  slave-masters  are  humane,  and  that 
slaves  are  treated  with  kindness.  These  averments,  however,  I  pro 
perly  put  aside,  precisely  as  I  have  already  put  aside  the  multitudinous 
illustrations  from  the  cruelty  of  Slavery.  On  the  simple  letter  of  the 
law  I  take  my  stand,  and  do  not  go  beyond  what  is  there  nominated. 
The  masses  of  men  are  not  better  than  their  laws,  and,  whatever  may 
be  the  eminence  of  individual  virtue,  it  is  not  reasonable  to  infer  that 
the  masses  of  slave-masters  are  better  than  the  law  of  Slavery.  And, 
since  this  law  submits  the  slave  to  their  irresponsible  control,  with  power 
to  bind  and  to  scourge — to  shut  the  soul  from  knowledge — to  separate 
families — to  unclasp  the  infant  from  a  mother's  breast,  and  the  wife  from 
a  husband's  arms, — it  is  natural  to  conclude  that  such  enormities  are 
sanctioned  by  them,  while  the  brutal  prohibition  of  instruction — by  sup 
plementary  law — gives  crowning  evidence  of  their  complete  complicity. 
And  this  conclusion  must  exist  unquestioned  just  so  long  as  the  la\v 
exists  unrepealed.  Cease,  then,  to  blazon  the  humanity  of  slave- 
masters.  Tell  me  not  of  the  lenity  with  which  this  cruel  law  is  tempered 
to  its  unhappy  subjects.  Tell  me  not  of  the  sympathy  which  overflows 
from  the  mansion  of  the  master  to  the  cabin  of  the  slave.  In  vain  you 
assert  thes^  instances.  In  vain  you  show  that  there  are  individuals  who 
do  not  exert  the  wickedness  of  the  law.  The  law  still  endures.  Slavery, 
which  it  defines  and  upholds,  continues  to  outrage  Public  Opinion,  and, 
within  the  limits  of  our  Republic,  upwards  of  three  millions  of  human 
beings,  guilty  only  of  a  skin  not  colored  like  your  own,  are  left  the 
victims  of  its  unrighteous,  irresponsible  power. 

Power  divorced  from  right  is  devilish  ;  power  without  the  check  of 
responsibility  is  tyrannical ;  and  I  need  not  go  back  to  the  authority  of 
Plato,  when  I  assert  that  the  most  complete  injustice  is  that  which  is 
erected  into  the  form  of  law.  But  all  these  things  concur  in  Slavery.  It 
is,  then,  on  the  testimony  of  slave-masters,  solemnly,  legislatively,  judicially 
attested  in  the  very  law  itself,  that  I  now  arraign  this  institution  as  an 
outrage  upon  man  and  his  Creator.  And  here  is  the  necessity  of  the 
Anti-Slavery  Enterprise.  A  wrong  so  transcendent,  so  loathsome,  so 
direful,  must  be  encountered  wherever  it  can  be  reached,  and  the  battle 
must  be  continued  without  truce  or  compromise,  until  the  field  is  entirely 
won.  Freedom  and  Slavery  can  hold  no  divided  empire  ;  nor  can  there 
be  any  true  repose  until  Freedom  is  everywhere  established. 

12 


178  ALLEGED   DISTINCTION   OF   RACE. 

To  the  necessity  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Enterprise,  there  are  two — and 
only  two — vital  objections  ;  one  founded  on  the  alleged  distinction  of 
race,  and  the  other  on  the  alleged  sanction  of  Christianity.  All  other 
objections  are  of  an  inferior  character,  or  are  directed  logically  at  its 
practicability.  Of  these  two  leading  objections,  let  me  briefly  speak. 

i.  And,  first,  of  the  alleged  distinction  of  race.  This  objection  itself 
assumes  two  different  forms,  one  founded  on  a  prophetic  malediction  in 
the  Old  Testament,  and  the  other  on  the  professed  observations  of 
recent  science.  Its  importance  is  apparent  in  the  obvious  fact,  that, 
unless  such  distinction  be  clearly  and  unmistakably  established,  every 
argument  by  which  our  own  freedom  is  vindicated. — every  applause 
awarded  to  the  successful  rebellion  of  our  fathers, — every  indignant 
word  ever  hurled  against  the  enslavement  of  our  white  fellow-citizens 
by  Algerine  corsairs,  must  plead  trumpet-tongued  against  the  deep  dam 
nation  of  Slavery,  whether  white  or  black. 

It  is  said  that  the  Africans  are  the  posterity  of  Ham,  the  son  of  Noah, 
through  Canaan,  who  was  cursed  by  Noah,  to  be  the  servant  of  his 
brethren,  and  that  this  malediction  has  fallen  upon  all  his  descendants, 
including  the  unhappy  Africans, — who  are  accordingly  devoted  by  God, 
through  unending  generations,  to  unending  bondage.  Such  is  the 
favorite  argument  often  put  forth  at  the  South,  and  more  than  once 
directly  addressed  to  myself.  Here,  for  instance,  is  a  passage  from  a 
letter  recently  received :  "You  need  not  persist,"  says  thenvriter,  "in 
confounding  .Japheth's  children  with  Ham's,  and  making  both  races 
one,  and  arguing  on  their  rights  as  those  of  man  broadly."  And  I  have 
been  seriously  assured  that  until  this  objection  is  answered,  it  will  be  in 
vain  to  press  my  views  upon  Congress  or  the  country.  Listen  now  to 
the  texts  of  the  Old  Testament  which  are  so  strangely  employed : 

"  And  he  (Noah)  said,  cursed  be  Canaan  :  a  servant  of  servants  shall 
he  be  unto  his  brethren.  And  he  said,  Blessed  be  the  Lord  God  of 
Shem  ;  and  Canaan  shall  be  his  servant.  God  shall  enlarge  Japheth, 
and  he  shall  dwell  in  the  tents  of  Shem,  and  Canaan  shall  be  his  ser- 
'vant." — Genesis,  chap.  ix.  25-27. 

That  is  all ;  and  I  need  only  read  these  words  in  order  to  expose  the 
•whole  transpicuous  humbug.  But  I  am  tempted  to  add,  that,  to  justify 
this  objection,  it  will  be  necessary  to  maintain  at  least  five  different 
propositions,  as  essential  links  in  the  chain  of  the  African  slave  ;  first, 
that,  by  this  malediction,  Canaan  himself  was  actually  changed  into  a 
chattel,  whereas,  he  is  simply  made  the  servant  of  his  brethren  ;  secondly, 
that  not  merely  Canaan,  but  all  his  posterity,  to  the  remotest  genera- 


ONE   GREAT   HUMAN   FAMILY.  179 

tion,  was  so  changed,  whereas  the  language  has  no  such  extent ;  thirdly, 
that  the  African  actually  belongs  to  the  posterity  of  Canaan, — an  ethno 
graphical  assumption  absurdly  difficult  to  establish  ;  fourthly,  that  each 
of  the  descendants  of  Shem  and  Japheth  has  a  right  to  hold  an  African 
fellow-man  as  a  chattel, — a  proposition  which  finds  no  semblance  of 
support  ;  and,  fifthly,  that  every  slave-master  is  truly  descended  from 
Shem  or  Japheth, — a  pedigree  which  no  anxiety  or  audacity  can  prove  ! 
This  plain  analysis,  which  may  fitly  excite  a  smile,  shows  the  five-fold 
absurdity  of  an  attempt  to  found  this  revolting  wrong  on 

"Any  successive  title,  long  and  dark, 

Drawn  from  the  mouldy  rolls  of  Noah's  ark." 

The  small  bigotry  which  could  find  comfort  in  these  texts,  has  been 
lately  exalted  by  the  voice  of  science,  which  has  undertaken  to  suggest 
that  the  different  races  of  men  are  not  derived  from  a  single  pair,  but 
from  several  distinct  stocks,  according  to  their  several  distinct  character 
istics  ;  and  it  has  been  audaciously  argued  that  the  African  is  so  far.  in 
ferior,  as  to  lose  all  title  to  that  liberty  which  is  the  birthright  of  the 
lordly  white.  Now  I  have  neither  time  nor  disposition  on  this  occasion 
to  discuss  the  question  of  the  unity  of  the  races ;  nor  is  it  necessary  to 
my  present  purpose.  It  may  be  that  the  different  races  of  men  pro 
ceeded  from  different  stocks  ;  but  there  is  but  one  great  Human  Family, 
in  which  Caucasian  and  African,  Chinese  and  Indian,  are  all  brothers, 
children  of  one  Father,  and  heirs  to  one  happiness, — alike  on  earth  and 
in  heaven.  "  Star-eyed  science  "  cannot  shake  this  everlasting  truth. 
It  may  vainly  exhibit  peculiarities  in  the  African,  by  which  he  is  dis 
tinguishable  from  the  Caucasian.  It  may,  in  his  physical  form  and  in 
tellectual  character,  presume  to  find  the  stamp  of  permanent  inferiority. 
But  by  no  reach  of  learning,  by  no  torture  of  fact,  by  no  effrontery  of 
dogma,  can  it  show  that  he  is  not  a  man.  And  as  a  man  he  stands  be 
fore  you  an  unquestionable  member  of  the  Human  Family,  and  entitled 
to  all  the  rights  of  man.  You  can  claim  nothing  for  yourself,  as  man, 
which  you  must  not  accord  to  him.  Life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness, — -which  you  proudly  declare  to  be  your  own  inalienable,  God- 
given  rights,  and  to  the  support  of  which  your  fathers  pledged  their 
lives,  fortunes  and  sacred  honor,  are  his  by  the  same  immortal  title  that 
they  are  yours. 

2.  From  the  objection  founded  on  the  alleged  distinction  of  race,  I 
pass  to  that  other  founded  on  the  alleged  sanction  of  slavery  by  Chris 
tianity.  And,  striving  to  be  brief,  I  shall  not  undertake  to  reconcile 


I  SO  A    HUMAN   BEING   NOT   PROPERTY. 

texts  often  quoted  from  the  Old  Testament,  which,  whatever  may  be 
their  import,  are  all  absorbed  in  the  New ;  nor  shall  I  stop  to  consider 
the  precise  interpretation  of  the  oft-quoted  phrase,  Servants,  obey  your 
masters  ;  nor  seek  to  weigh  any  such  imperfect  injunction  in  the  scales 
against  those  grand  commandments,  on  which  hang  all  the  law  and  the 
prophets.  Surely,  in  the  example  and  teachings  of  the  Saviour,  who 
lifted  up  the  down-trodden,  who  enjoined  purity  of  life,  and  overflowed 
with  tenderness  even  to  little  children,  human  ingenuity  can  find  no 
apology  for  an  institution  which  tramples  on  man, — which  denies 
woman, — and  sweeps  little  children  beneath  the  hammer  of  the  auc 
tioneer.  If  to  any  one  these  things  seem  to  have  the  license  of  Chris 
tianity,  it  is  only  because  they  have  first  secured  a  license  in  his  own 
soul.  Men  are  prone  to  find  in  uncertain,  disconnected  texts,  a  con 
firmation  of  their  own  personal  prejudices  or  prepossessions.  And  I 
— who  am  no  divine,  but  only  a  simple  layman — make  bold  to  say,  that 
whoever  finds  in  the  Gospel  any  sanction  of  Slavery,  finds  there  merely 
a  reflection  of  himself.  On  a  matter  so  irresistibly  clear,  authority  is 
superfluous  ;  but  an  eminent  character,  who  as  poet  makes  us  forget 
his  high  place  as  philosopher,  and  as  philosopher,  makes  us  forget  his 
high  place  as  theologian,  has  exposed  the  essential  antagonism  between 
Christianity  and  Slavery,  in  a  few  pregnant  words  which  you  will  be 
glad  to  hear, — particularly  as,  I  believe,  they  have  not  been  before  in 
troduced  into  this  discussion.  "  By  a  principle  essential  to  Christian 
ity,"  says  Coleridge,  "a person  is  eternally  differenced  from  a  thing ;  so 
that  the  idea  of  a  Human  Being  necessarily  excludes  the  idea  of  property 
in  that  Being" 

With  regret,  though  not  with  astonishment,  I  learn  that  a  Boston  di 
vine  has. sought  to  throw  the  seamless  garment  of  Christ  over  this  shock 
ing  wrong.  But  I  am  patient,  and  see  clearly  how  vain  will  be  hi.s 
effort,  when  I  call  to  mind,  that,  within  this  very  century,  other  divines 
sought  to  throw  the  same  seamless  garment  over  the  more  shocking 
slave-trade  ;  and  that,  among  many  publications,  a  little  book  was  then 
put  forth  with  the  name  of  a  reverend  clergyman  on  the  title-page,  to 
prove  that  "  the  African  trade  for  negro  slaves  is  consistent  with  the 
principles  of  humanity  and  revealed  religion;"  and,  thinking  of  these 
things,  I  am  ready  to  say  with  Shakespeare, 

" In  religion, 


What  damned  error,  but  some  sober  brow 
Will  bless  it  and  approve  it  with  a  text  ?  " 


PRACTICABILITY   OF   ANTI-SLAVERY  ENTERPRISE.         l8l 

XXVIII. 

II.  I  am  now  brought,  in  the  second  place,  to  consider  the  PRACTICA 
BILITY  of  the  Enterprise.  And  here  the  way  is  easy.  In  showing  its 
necessity,  I  have  already  demonstrated  its  practicability  ;  for  the  former 
includes  the  latter,  as  the  greater  includes  the  less.  Whatever  is  neces 
sary,  must  be  practicable.  By  a  decree  which  has  ever  been  a  by-word 
of  tyranny,  the  Israelites  were  compelled  to  make  bricks  without  straw ; 
but  it  is  not  according  to  the  ways  of  a  benevolent  Providence  that 
man  should  be  constrained  to  do  what  cannot  be  done.  Besides,  the 
Anti-Slavery  Enterprise  is  right ;  and  the  right  is  always  practicable. 

I  know  well  the  little  faith  which  the  world  has  in  the  triumph  of 
principles,  and  I  readily  imagine  the  despair  with  which  our  object  is 
regarded  ;  but  not  on  this  account  am  I  disheartened.  That  exuberant 
writer,  Sir  Thomas  Browne,  breaks  into  an  ecstatic  wish  for  some  new 
difficulty  in  Christian  belief,  that  his  faith  might  have  a  new  victory, 
and  an  eminent  enthusiast  went  so  far  as  to  say  that  he  believed  be 
cause  it  was  impossible — credo  qida  impossibile.  But  no  such  exalted 
faith  is  now  required.  Here  is  no  impossibility,  nor  is  there  any  diffi 
culty  which  will  not  yield  to  a  faithful,  well-directed  endeavor.  If  to 
any  timid  soul  the  Enterprise  seems  impossible  because  it  is  too  beau 
tiful,  then  I  say  at  once  that  it  is  too  beautiful  not  to  be  possible. 

But  descending  from  these  summits,  let  me  show  plainly  the  object 
which  it  seeks  to  accomplish,  and  herein  you  shall  see  and  confess  its 
complete  practicability.  While  discountenancing  all  prejudice  of  color 
and  every  establishment  of  caste,  the  Anti-Slavery  Enterprise — at  least 
so  far  as  1  may  speak  for  it — does  not  undertake  to  change  human 
nature,  or  to  force  any  individual  into  relations  of  life  for  which  he  is 
not  morally,  intellectually  and  socially  adapted  ;  nor  does  it  necessarily 
assume  that  a  race,  degraded  for  long  generations  under  the  iron  heel 
of  bondage,  can  be  lifted  at  once  into  all  the  political  privileges  of  an 
American  citizen.  But,  sir,  it  does  confidently  assume,  against  all 
question,  contradiction,  or  assault  whatever,  that  every  man  is  entitled 
to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  ;  and,  with  equal  confidence, 
it  asserts  that  every  individual,  who  wears  the  human  form,  whether 
black  or  while,  should  at  once  be  recognized  as  man.  I  know  not  when 
this  is  done,  what  other  trials  may  be  in  wait  for  the  unhappy  African ; 
but  this  I  do  know,  that  the  Anti-Slavery  Enterprise  will  then  have  tri 
umphed,  and  the  institution  of  Slavery,  as  defined  by  existing  law,  will 
no  longer  shock  mankind. 


1 82  THE   QUESTION   TO   BE   OPENLY    CONFRONTED. 

In  this  work  the  first  essential,  practical  requisite  is,  that  the  question 
shall  be  openly  and  frankly  confronted.  Do  not  put  it  aside.  Do  not 
blink  it  out  of  sight.  Do  not  dodge  it.  Approach  it.  Study  it.  Pon 
der  it.  Deal  with  it.  Let  it  rest  in  the  illumination  of  speech,  conver 
sation  and  the  press.  Let  it  fill  the  thoughts  of  the  statesman  and  the 
prayers  of  the  pulpit.  When  Slavery  is  thus  regarded,  its  true  character 
will  be  recognized  as  a  hateful  assemblage  of  unqnestio?iable  wrongs  undet 
the  sanction  of  existing  law,  and  good  men  will  be  moved  at  once  to  apply 
the  remedy.  Already  even  its  zealots  admit  that  its  "  abuses  "  should 
be  removed.  This  is  their  word  and  not  mine.  Alas  !  alas  !  sir,  it  is 
these  very  "abuses"  which  constitute  its  component  parts,  without 
which  it  would  not  exist,  even  as  the  scourges  in  a  bundle  with  the  axe 
constituted  the  dread  fasces  of  the  Roman  lictor.  Take  away  these, 
and  the  whole  embodied  outrage  will  disappear.  Surely  that  central 
assumption — more  deadly  than  the  axe  itself — by  which  man  is  changed 
into  a  chattel,  may  be  abandoned;  and  is  not  this  practicable?  The 
associate  scourges  by  which  that  transcendant  "abuse"  is  surrounded, 
may,  one  by  one,  be  subtracted.  The  "abuse"  which  substitutes 
concubinage  for  marriage — the  "  abuse "  which  annuls  the  parental 
relation — the  "  abuse  "  which  closes  the  portals  of  knowledge — the 
"abuse"  which  tyrannically  usurps  all  the  labor  of  another — now  up 
held  by  "positive  la.w,  may  by  positive  law  be  abolished.  To  say  that 
this  is  not  practicable,  in  the  nineteenth  century,  would  be  a  scandal 
upon  mankind  ;  and  just  in  proportion  as  these  "  abuses"  cease  to  have 
the  sanction  of  law,  will  the  institution  of  Slavery  cease  to  exist.  The 
African,  whatever  may  then  be  his  condition,  will  no  longer  be  the  slave 
over  whose  wrongs  and  sorrows  the  world  throbs  at  times  fiercely  indig 
nant,  and  at  times  painfully  sad,  while  with  outstretched  arms,  he  sends 
forth  the  piteous  cry,  "  Am  I  not  a  man  and  a  brother  ?  " 

In  pressing  forward  to  this  result,  the  inquiry  is  often  presented,  to 
what  extent,  if  any,  shall  compensation  be  allowed  to  the  slave-masters  ? 
Clearly,  if  the  point  be  determined  by  absolute  justice,  not  the  masters 
but  the  slaves  will  be  entitled  to  compensation  ;  for  it  is  the  slaves,  who, 
throughout  weary  generations,  have  been  deprived  of  their  toil,  and  all 
its  fruits  which  went  to  enrich  their  masters.  Besides,  it  seems  hardly 
reasonable  to  pay  for  the  relinquishment  of  those  disgusting  "abuses," 
which,  in  their  aggregation,  constitute  the  bundle  of  slavery.  Pray, 
sir,  by  what  tariff,  price  current,  or  principle  of  equation,  shall  their 
several  values  be  estimated?  What  sum  shall  be  counted  out  as  the 
proper  price  for  the  abandonment  of  that  pretension — more  indecent  than 


RIGHT  CANNOT  BE  FOUNDED  ON  WRONG.       183 

fat  jus  prim cc  noctis  of  the  feudal  age — which  leaves  woman,  whether 
in  the  arms  of  master  or  slave,  always  a  concubine  ?  What  bribe  shall 
be  proffered  for  the  restoration  of  God-given  paternal  rights  ?  What 
money  shall  be  paid  for  taking  off  the  padlock  by  which  souls  are  fast 
ened  down  in  darkness  ?  How  much  for  a  quit-claim  to  labor  now 
meanly  exacted  by  the  strong  from  the  weak  ?  And  what  compensa 
tion  shall  be  awarded  for  the  egregious  assumption,  condemned  by  rea 
son  and  abhorred  by  piety,  which  changes  a  man  into  a  thing  ?  I  put 
these  questions  without  undertaking  to  pass  upon  them.  Shrinking  in 
stinctively  from  any  recognition  of  right  founded  on  wrongs,  I  find 
myself  shrinking  also  from  any  austere  verdict,  which  shall  deny  the 
means  necessary  to  the  great  consummation  we  seek.  Our  fathers,  un 
der  Washington,  did  not  hesitate  by  Act  of  Congress,  to  appropriate 
largely  for  the  ransom  of  white  fellow-citizens  enslaved  by  Algerine  cor 
sairs  ;  and,  following  this  example,  I  am  disposed  to  consider  the  ques: 
tion  of  compensation  as  one  of  expediency,  to  be  determined  by  the 
exigency  of  the  hour  and  the  constitutional  powers  of  the  Government ; 
though  such  is  rny  desire  to  see  the  foul  fiend  of  slavery  in  flight,  that 
I  could  not  hesitate  to  build  even  a  Bridge  of  Gold,  if  necessary,  to 
promote  his  escape. 

The  Practicability  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Enterprise  has  been  constantly 
questioned,  often  so  superficially,  as  to  be  answered  at  once.  I  shall 
not  take  time  to  consider  the  allegation,  founded  on  considerations  of 
economy,  which  audaciously  assumes  that  Slave  Labor  is  more  advan 
tageous  than  Free  Labor — that  Slavery  is  more  profitable  than  Free 
dom  ;  for  this  is  all  exploded  by  the  official  tables  of  the  census ;  nor 
that  other  futile  argument,  that  the  slaves  are  not  prepared  for  Free 
dom,  and,  therefore,  should  not  be  precipitated  into  this  condition, — 
for  that  is  no  better  than  the  ancient  Greek  folly,  where  the  anxious 
mother  would  not  allow  her  son  to  go  into  the  water  until  he  had  first 
learned  to  swim.  But,  as  against  the  Necessity  of  the  Anti-Slavery 
Enterprise,  there  were  two  chief  objections,  so,  also,  against  its  Practi 
cability  there  are  two  ;  the  first,  founded  on  its  alleged  danger  to  the  mas 
ter,  and  the  second,  on  its  alleged  damage  to  the  slave  himself. 

i.  The  first  objection,  founded  on  the  alleged  danger  to  the  master, 
most  generally  takes  the  extravagant  form,  that  the  slave,  if  released 
from  his  present  condition,  would  cut  his  master's  throat.  Here  is  a 
blatant  paradox,  which  can  pass  for  reason  only  among  those  who  have 
lost  their  reason.  With  an  absurdity  which  finds  no  parallel  except  in 
the  defences  of  Slavery,  it  assumes  that  the  African,  when  treated  justly, 


1 84  EMANCIPATION   NOT  DANGEROUS. 

will  show  a  vindictiveness  which  he  does  not  exhibit  when  treated  un 
justly  ;  that  when  elevated  by  the  blessings  of  Freedom,  he  will  develop 
an  appetite  for  blood  which  he  never  manifested  when  crushed  by  the 
curse  of  bondage.  At  present,  the  slave  sees  his  wife  ravished  from  his 
arms — sees  his  infant  swept  away  to  the  auction  block — sees  the  heav 
enly  gates  of  knowledge  shut  upon  him— sees  his  industry  and  all  its 
fruits  unjustly  snatched  by  another — sees  himself  and  offspring  doomed 
to  a  servitude  from  which  there  is  no  redemption  ;  and  still  his  master 
sleeps  secure.  Will  the  master  sleep  less  secure,  when  the  slave  no 
longer  smarts  under  these  revolting  atrocities  ?  I  will  not  trifle  with 
your  intelligence,  or  with  the  quick-passing  hour,  by  arguing  this  ques 
tion. 

XXIX. 

By  a  single  Act  of  Parliament,  the  slaves  of  the  West  Indies  be 
came  at  once  free  ;  and  this  great  transition  was  accomplished  abso 
lutely  without  personal  danger  of  any  kind  to  the  master.  And  yet  the 
chance  of  danger  there  was  greater  far  than  among  us.  In  our  broad 
country,  the  slaves  are  overshadowed  by  a  more  than  six-fold  white 
population.  Only  in  two  States — South  Carolina  and  Mississippi — do 
the  slaves  outnumber  the  whites,  and  these  but  slightly,  while  in  the  en 
tire  Slave  States,  the  whites  outnumber  the  slaves  by  many  millions. 
Hut  it  was  otherwise  in  the  British  West  Indies,  where  the  whites  were 
overshadowed  by  a  more  than  six-fold  population.  The  slaves  were 
800,000,  while  the  whites  numbered  only  131,000,  distributed  in  differ 
ent  proportions  on  the  different  islands.  And  this  disproportion  has 
since  increased  rather  than  diminished,  always  without  danger  to  the 
whites.  In  Jamaica,  the  largest  of  these  possessions,  there  are  now 
upwards  of  400,000  Africans,  and  only  37,000  whites;  in  Barbadoes, 
the  next  largest  possession,  there  are  120,000  Africans,  and  only  15,000 
whites;  in  St.  Lucia,  19,500  Africans,  and  only  600  whites;  in  Toba 
go,  14,000  Africans,  and  only  600  whites ;  in  Montserrat,  6,000  Afri 
cans,  and  only  150  whites;  and  in  the  Grenadines,  upwards  of  6,000 
Africans,  and  less  than  50  whites.  And  yet  in  all  these  places,  the 
authorities  attest  the  good  behavior  of  the  Africans.  Sir  Lionel  Smith, 
the  Governor  of  Jamaica,  in  his  speech  to  the  Assembly,  declared  that 
their  conduct  "  proves  how  well  they  deserved  the  boon  of  Freedom." 
Another  Governor  of  another  island  dwells  on  the  "peculiarly  rare  in 
stances  of  the  commission  of  grave  or  sanguinary  crimes  among  the 


INSTANT  FREEDOM   SAFE   FOR   THE   SLAVE.  1 8$ 

emancipated  portion  of  these  islands;"  and  the  Queen  of  England, 
in  a  speech  from  the  throne,  has  announced  that  the  complete  and  final 
emancipation  of  the  Africans  had  "taken  place  without  any  disturb 
ance  of  public  order  and  tranquillity."  In  this  example  I  hail  new  con 
firmation  of  the  rule  that  the  highest  safety  is  in  doing  right ;  and  thus 
do  I  dismiss  the  objection  founded  on  the  alleged  danger  to  the  master. 

2.  And  I  am  now  brought  to  the  second  objection,  founded  on  the 
alleged  damage  to  the  slave.  It  is  common  among  the  partisans  of 
Slavery,  to  assert  that  our  Enterprise  has  actually  retarded  the  very 
cause  it  seeks  to  promote ;  and  this  paradoxical  accusation,  which 
might  naturally  show  itself  among  the  rank  weeds  of  the  South,  is 
cherished  here  on  our  Northern  soil,  by  those  who  anxiously  look  for 
any  fig-leaf  with  which  to  cover  their  indifference  or  tergiversation. 

This  peculiar  form  of  complaint  is  an  old  device,  which  has  been  in 
stinctively  employed  on  other  occasions  until  it  has  ceased  to  be  even 
plausible.  Thus,  throughout  all  times,  has  every  good  cause  been  encoun 
tered.  The  Saviour  was  nailed  to  the  cross  with  a  crown  of  thorns  on 
his  head,  as  a  disturber  of  that  peace  on  earth  which  he  came  to  de 
clare.  The  disciples,  while  preaching  the  Gospel  of  forgiveness  and 
good-will,  were  stoned  as  preachers  of  sedition  and  discord.  The  re 
formers,  who  sought  to  establish  a  higher  piety  and  faith,  were  burnt  at 
the  stake  as  blasphemers  and  infidels.  Patriots,  in  all  ages,  who  have 
striven  for  their  country's  good,  have  been  doomed  to  the  scaffold  or  to 
exile,  even  as  their  country's  enemies.  And  those  brave  Englishmen, 
who,  at  home,  under  the  lead  of  Edmund  Burke,  even  against  their  own 
country,  espoused  the  cause  of  our  fathers,  shared  the  same  illogical 
impeachment,  which  was  touched  to  the  quick  by  that  orator-statesman, 
when,  after  exposing  its  essential  vice,  "  in  attributing  the  ill-effect  of 
ill-judged  conduct  to  the  arguments  used  to  dissuade  us  from  it,"  he  de 
nounced  it  as  "  very  absurd,  but  very  common  in  modern  practice,  and 
very  wicked."  Ay,  sir,  it  is  common  in  modern  practice.  In  England, 
it  has  vainly  renewed  itself  with  special  frequency  against  the  Bible  So 
cieties  ;  against  the  friends  of  education ;  against  the  patrons  of  vacci 
nation  ;  against  the  partisans  of  peace,  all  of  whom  have  been  openly 
arraigned  as  provoking  and  increasing  the  very  evils,  whether  of  infi 
delity,  idleness,  disease,  or  war,  which  they  benignly  sought  to  check. 
And  to  bring  an  instance  which  is  precisely  applicable  to  our  own, 
Wilberforce,  when  conducting  the  Anti-Slavery  Enterprise  of  England, 
first  against  the  slave-trade  and  then  against  Slavery  itself,  was  told  that 
those  efforts,  by  which  his  name  is  now  consecrated  forevermore,  tend- 


1 86        GOOD  OF  THE  ENTERPRISE  ALREADY. 

ed  to  increase  the  hardships  of  the  slave,  even  to  the  extent  of  riveting 
anew  his  chains.  Such  are  the  precedents  for  the  imputation  to  which 
our  Enterprise  is  exposed  :  and  such,  also,  are  the  precedents  by  which 
I  exhibit  the  fallacy  of  the  imputation. 

Sir,  I  do  not  doubt  that  the  Enterprise  has  produced  heat  and  irrita 
tion,  amounting  often  to  inflammation,  among  slave-masters,  which,  to 
superficial  minds,  may  seem  inconsistent  with  success  ;  but  which  the 
careful  observer  will  recognize  at  once  as  fhe  natural  and  not  unhealthy 
effort  of  a  diseased  body  to  purge  itself  of  existing  impurities  ;  and  just 
in  proportion  to  the  malignity  of  the  concealed  poison,  will  be  the  ex 
tent  of  inflammation.  A  distemper  like  Slavery  cannot  be  ejected  like 
a  splinter.  It  is,  perhaps,  too  much  to  expect  that  men  thus  tortured 
should  reason  calmly — that  patients  thus  suffering  should  comprehend 
the  true  nature  of  their  case  and  kindly  acknowledge  the  beneficent 
work  ;  but  not  on  this  account  can  it  be  suspended. 

In  the  face  of  this  complaint,  I  assert  that  the  Anti-Slavery  Enterprise 
has  already  accomplished  incalculable  good.  Even  now  it  touches  the 
national  heart  as  it  never  before  was  touched,  sweeping  its  strings  with 
a  might  to  draw  forth  emotions  such  as  no  political  struggle  has  ever 
evoked.  It  moves  the  young,  the  middle-aged,  and  the  old.  It  enters 
the  family  circle,  and  mingles  with  the  flame  of  the  household  hearth. 
It  reaches  the  souls  of  mothers,  wives,  sisters  and  daughters,  filling  all 
with  a  new  aspiration  for  justice  on  earth,  "and  awakening  not  merely  a 
sentiment  against  Slavery,  such  as  prevailed  with  our  fathers,  but  a  deep, 
undying  conviction  of  its  wrong,  and  a  determination  to  leave  no  effort 
unattempted  for  its  removal.  With  the  sympathies  of  all  Christendom 
as  allies,  it  has  already  encompassed  the  slave-masters  by  a  moral 
blockade,  invisible  to  the  eye,  but  more  potent  than  navies,  from  which 
there  can  be  no  escape  except  in  final  capitulation.  Thus  it  has  created 
the  irresistible  influence  which  itself  constitutes  the  beginning  of  suc 
cess.  Already  there  are  signs  of  change.  In  common  speech,  as  well 
as  in  writing,  among  slave-masters  the  bondman  is  no  longer  called  a 
slave,  but  a  servant, — thus,  by  a  soft  substitution,  concealing  and  con 
demning  the  true  relation.  Even  newspapers  in  the  land  of  bondage 
blush  with  indignation  at  the  hunt  of  men  by  blood-hounds,  thus  pro 
testing  against  an  unquestionable  incident  of  Slavery.  Other  signs  are 
found  in  the  added  comfort  of  the  slave  ;  in  the  enlarged  attention  to 
his  wants  ;  in  the  experiments  now  beginning,  by  which  the  slave  is 
enabled  to  share  in  the  profits  of  his  labor,  and  thus  finally  secure  his 
freedom  ;  and,  above  all,  in  the  consciousness  among  slave-masters 


INHERENT   DIGNITY   OF  THE   ENTERPRISE.  iS/ 

themselves,  that  they  dwell  now  as  never  before  under  the  keen  obser 
vation  of  an  ever-wakeful  Public  Opinion,  quickened  by  an  ever- wakeful 
Public  Press.  Nor  is  this  all.  Only  lately  propositions  have  been  in 
troduced  into  the  Legislatures  of  different  States,  and  countenanced  by 
Governors,  to  mitigate  the  existing  law  of  Slavery ;  and,  almost  while 
speaking,  I  have  received  the  drafts  of  two  different  memorials, — one 
addressed  to  the  Legislature  of  Virginia,  and  the  other  to  that  of 
North  Carolina, — asking  for  the  slave  three  things,  which  it  will  be 
monstrous  to  refuse,  but  which,  if  conceded,  will  take  from  Slavery  its 
existing  character  ; — I  mean,  first,  the  protection  of  the  marriage  rela 
tion  ;  secondly,  the  protection  of  the  parental  relation  ;  and,  thirdly, 
the  privilege  of  knowledge.  Grant  these,  and  the  girdled  Upas  tree 
soon  must  die.  Sir,  amidst  these  tokens  of  present  success,  and  the 
auguries  of  the  future,  I  am  not  disturbed  by  any  complaints  of  seeming 
damage.  "  Though  it  consume  our  own  dwelling,  who  does  not  ven 
erate  fire,  without  which  human  life  can  hardly  exist*" on  earth,"  says  the 
Hindoo  proverb  ;  and  the  time  is  even  now  at  hand  when  the  Anti- 
Slavery  Enterprise,  which  is  the  very  fire  of  Freedom,  with  all  its  inci 
dental  excesses  or  excitements,  will  be  hailed  with  a  similar  regard. 

XXX. 

III.  And  now,  in  the  ////replace,  the  Anti-Slavery  Enterprise,  which 
I  have  shown  to  be  at  once  necessary  and  practicable,  is  commended 
by  its  inherent  DIGNITY.  Here  the  reasons  are  obvious  and  unanswer 
able. 

Its  object  is  benevolent;  nor  is  there,  in  the  dreary  annals  of  the 
Past,  a  single  Enterprise  which  stands  forth  more  clearly  and  indisput 
ably  entitled  to  this  character.  With  unsurpassed  and  touching  mag 
nanimity,  it  seeks  to  benefit  the  lowly  whom  your  eyes  have  not  seen, 
and  who  are  ignorant  even  of  your  labors,  while  it  demands  and  receives 
a  self-sacrifice  calculated  to  ennoble  an  enterprise  of  even  questionable 
merit.  Its  true  rank  is  among  works  properly  called  philanthropic — 
the  title  of  highest  honor  on  earth.  "  I  take  goodness  in  this  sense," 
says  Lord  Bacon  in  his  Essays,  "  the  affecting  of  the  weal  of  men,  which 
is  what  the  Grecians  call  Philanthropeia — of  all  virtues  and  dignities  of 
the  mind  the  greatest,  being  the  character  of  the  Deity ;  and  without 
it,  man  is  a  busy,  mischievous,  wretched  thing,  no  better  than  a  kind  of 
vermin."  Lord  Bacon  was  right,  and,  perhaps,  unconsciously  followed 


1 88  FREEDOM   THE   DARLING   OF   HISTORY. 

a  higher  authority  ;  for,  when  Moses  asked  the  Lord  to  show  unto  him 
His  glory,  the  Lord  said,  "  I  will  make  all  my  goodness  to  pass  before 
thee."  Ah  !  sir,  Peace  has  trophies  fairer  and  more  perennial  than  any 
snatched  from  fields  of  blood,  but  among  all  these,  the  fairest  and  most 
perennial  are  the  trophies  of  beneficence.  Scholarship,  literature, 
jurisprudence,  art,  may  wear  their  well-deserved  honors  ;  but  an  Enter 
prise  of  goodness  deserves,  and  will  yet  receive,  a  higher  palm  than 
these. 

In  other  aspects  its  dignity  is  apj3arent.  It  concerns  the  cause  of 
Human  Freedom,  which,  from  the  earliest  days,  has  been  the  darling  of 
history.  By  all  the  memories  of  the  Past ;  by  the  stories  of  childhood 
and  the  studies  of  youth  ;  by  every  example  of  magnanimous  virtue  ;  by 
every  aspiration  for  the  good  and  true  ;  by  the  fame  of  the  martyrs 
swelling  through  all  time ;  by  the  renown  of  patriots  whose  lives  are 
landmarks  of  progress  ;  by  the  praise  lavished  upon  our  fathers,  you 
are  summoned  to  this  work.  Unless  Freedom  be  an  illusion,  and 
Benevolence  an  error,  you  cannot  resist  the  appeal.  But  our  cause  is 
nobler  even  than  that  of  our  fathers,  inasmuch  as  it  is  more  exalted  to 
struggle  for  the  freedom  of  others  than  for  our  oiun. 

Its  practical  importance  at  this  moment  gives  to  it  an  additional 
eminence.  Whether  measured  by  the  number  of  beings  it  seeks  to 
benefit ;  by  the  magnitude  of  the  wrongs  it  hopes  to  relieve  ;  by  the 
difficulties  with  which  it  is  beset ;  by  the  political  relations  which  it 
affects  ;  or  by  the  ability  and  character  it  has  enlisted,  the  cause  of  the 
slave  now  assumes  proportions  of  grandeur  which  dwarf  all  other  interests 
in- our  broad  country.  In  its  presence  the  machinations  of  politicians, 
the  aspirations  of  office-seekers  and  the  subterfuges  of  party,  all  sink 
below  even  their  ordinary  insignificance.  For  myself,  sir,  I  can  see 
little  else  at  this  time  among  us  which  can  tempt  out  on  to  the  exposed 
steeps  of  public  life  an  honest  man,  who  wishes,  by  something  that  he 
does,  to  leave  the  world  better  than  he  found  it.  I  can  see  little  else 
which  can  afford  any  of  those  satisfactions  which  an  honest  man  should 
covet.  Nor  is  there  any  cause  which  so  surely  promises  final  success ; 

"  Oh!  a  fair  cause  stands  firm  and  will  abide  ; 
Legions  of  angels  fight  upon  its  side!  " 

It  is  written  that  in  the  last  days  there  shall  be  scoffers,  and  even  this 
P^nterprise,  thus  philanthropic,  has  not  escaped  their  aspersions.  And 
as  the  objections  to  its  Necessity  were  twofold,  and  the  objections  to 
its  Practicability  twofold,  so,  also,  are  the  aspersions  twofold  ; — first 


HARD   WORDS — PERSONAL   DISPARAGEMENT.  189 

in  the  form  of  hard  words,  and  secondly,  by  personal  disparagement  of 
those  who  are  engaged  in  it. 

1.  The  hard  words  are  manifold  as  the  passions  and  prejudices  of 
men  ;  but  they  generally  end  in  the  imputation  of  "  fanaticism."   In  such 
a  cause,  I  am  willing  to  be  called  "fanatic,"  or  what  you  will ;  I  care 
not  for  aspersions,  nor  shall  I  shrink  before  hard  words,  either  here  or 
elsewhere.     I  have  learned  from  that  great  Englishman,  Oliver  Crom 
well,  that  no  man  can  be  trusted  "  who  is  afraid  of  a  paper  pellet  ;  " 
and  I  am  too  familiar  with  history  not  to  know,  that  every  movement 
for  reform,  in  Church  or  State,  every  endeavor  for  Human  Liberty  or 
Human  Rights,  has  been  thus  assailed.     I   do  not  forget  with  what 
facility    and   frequency   hard   words   have   been  employed — how  that 
grandest  character  of  many  generations,  the  precursor  of  our  own  Wash 
ington,  without  whose  example  our  Republic  might  have  failed — the 
great  William,  Prince  of  Orange,  the  founder  of  the  Dutch  Republic, 
the  United  States  of  Holland — I   do   not  forget  how  he  was  publicly 
branded  as  "  a  perjurer  and  a  pest  of  society;  "  and,  not  to  dwell  on 
general  instances,  how  the  enterprise  for  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade 
was  characterized  on  the  floor  of  Parliament  by  one  eminent  speaker  as 
"  mischievous,"  and  by  another  as  "  visionary  and  delusive  ;  "  and  how 
the  exalted  characters  which  it  had  enlisted  were  arraigned  by  still  an 
other  eminent  speaker — none  other  than  that  Tarleton,  so  conspicuous 
as  the  commander  of  the  British  horse  in  the  southern  campaigns  of  our 
Revolution,  but  more  conspicuous  in  politics  at  home, — "  as  a  junto  of 
sectaries,   sophists,    enthusiasts  and   fanatics ; "   and    also    were   again 
arraigned  by  no  less  person  than  a  prince  of  the  blood,  the  Duke  of 
Clarence,  afterwards  William  IV.  of  England,  as  "  either  fanatics  or  hypo 
crites,"  in  one  of  which  classes  he  openly  placed  William  Wilberforce. 
But  impartial  history,  with  immortal  pen,  has  redressed  these  impas 
sioned  judgments  ;  and  the  same  impartial  history  will  yet  rejudge  the 
impassioned  judgments  of  this  hour. 

2.  Hard  words  have  been  followed  by  personal  disparagement,  and 
the  sneer  is  often  launched  that  our  Enterprise  lacks  the  authority  of 
names  eminent  in  Church  and  State.     If  this  be  so,  the  more  is  the  pity 
on  their  account ;  for  our  cause  is  needed  to  them  more  than  they  are 
needed  to  our  cause.     But  alas  !  it  is  only  according  to  the  example  of 
history  that  it  should  be  so.     It  is  not  the  eminent  in  Church  and  State, 
the  rich  and  powerful,  the  favorites  of  fortune  and  of  place,  who  most 
promptly  welcome  Truth,  when  she  heralds  change  in  the  existing  order 
of  things.  It  is  others  in  poorer  condition  who  throw  open  their  hospit- 


AT   LAST  THERE   IS   A   NORTH. 

able  hearts  to  the  unattended  stranger.  Nay,  more  ;  it  is  not  the  dwellers 
amidst  the  glare  of  the  world,  but  the  humble  and  lowly,  who  most  clearly 
discern  new  duties, — as  the  watchers,  placed  in  the  depths  of  a  well,  may 
observe  the  stars  which  are  obscured  to  those  who  live  in  the  effulgence 
of  noon.  Placed  below  the  egotism  and  prejudice  of  self-interest,  or  of 
a  class — below  the  cares  and  temptations  of  wealth  or  power — in  the 
obscurity  of  common  life,  they  discern  the  new  signal,  and  surrender 
themselves  unreservedly  to  its  guidance.  The  Saviour  knew  this.  He 
did  not  call  upon  the  Priest,  or  Levite,  or  Pharisee,  to  follow  him  ;  but 
upon  the  humble  fisherman  by  the  sea  of  Galilee. 


XXXI. 

And  now,  sir,  I  present  to  you  the  Anti-Slavery  Enterprise  vindicated 
in  Necessity,  Practicability  and  Dignity,  against  all  objections.  If  there 
be  any  objection  which  I  have  not  answered,  it  is  because  I  am  not 
aware  of  its  existence.  It  remains  that  I  should  give  a  practical  con 
clusion  to  this  whole  matter,  by  showing,  though  in  glimpses  only,  your 
SPECIAL  DifxiES  AS  FREEMEN  OF  THE  NORTH.  And,  thank  God  !  at 
last  there  is  a  North. 

Mr.  President,  it  is  not  uncommon  to  hear  persons  among  us  at  the 
North,  confess  the  wrong  of  Slavery,  and  then,  folding  their  hands  in 
absolute  listlessness,  ejaculate,  "What  can  we  do  about  it?"  Such 
men  we  encounter  daily.  You  all  know  them.  Among  them  are  men 
in  every  department  of  human  activity — who  perpetually  buy,  build  and 
plan — who  shrink  from  no  labor — who  are  daunted  by  no  peril  of  com 
mercial  adventure,  by  no  hardihood  of  industrial  enterprise — who, 
reaching  in  their  undertakings  across  oceans  and  continents,  would  un 
dertake  "  to  put  a  girdle  about  the  earth  in  forty  seconds  ;  "  and  yet, 
disheartened,  they  can  join  in  no  effort  against  Slavery.  Others  there 
are,  especially  among  the  youthful  and  enthusiastic,  who  vainly  sigh  be 
cause  they  were  not  born  in  the  age  of  chivalry,  or  at  least  in  the  days 
of  the  revolution,  not  thinking  that  in  this  Enterprise  there  is  an  oppor 
tunity  of  lofty  endeavor  such  as  no  Paladin  of  chivalry,  or  chief  of  the 
revolution  enjoyed.  Others  there  are,  who  freely  bestow  their  means 
and  time  upon  the  distant  inaccessible  heathen  of  another  hemisphere, 
in  the  islands  of  the  sea  ;  and  yet  they  can  do  nothing  to  mitigate  our 
grander  heathenism  here  at  home.  While  confessing  that  it  ought  to 
disappear  from  the  e'arth,  they  forego,  renounce  and  abandon  all  exer- 


THE   GOD   THOR,    AND    HIS    CUP.  191 

tion  against  it.  Others  there  are  still,  (such  is  human  inconsistency  !) 
who  plant  the  tree  in  whose  full-grown  shade  they  can  never  expect  to 
sit — who  hopefully  drop  the  acorn  in  the  earth,  trusting  that  the  oak 
which  it  sends  upwards  to  the  skies  will  shelter  their  children  beneath 
its  shade  ;  but  they  will  do  nothing  to  plant  or  nurture  the  great  tree  of 
Liberty,  that  it  may  cover  with  its  arms  unborn  generations  of  men. 

Others  still  there  are,  particularly  in  the  large  cities,  who  content 
themselves  by  occasional  contributions  to  the  redemption  of  a  slave. 
To  this  object  they  give  out  of  ample  riches,  and  thus  seek  to  silence 
the  monitions  of  conscience.  Now,  I  would  not  discountenance  any 
form  of  activity  by  which  Human  Freedom,  even  in  a  single  case,  may 
be  secured.  But  I  desire  to  say,  that  such  an  act — too  often  accom 
panied  by  a  pharisaical  pretension,  in  strange  contrast  with  the  petty 
performance — cannot  be  considered  an  essential  aid  to  the  Anti-Slavery 
Enterprise.  Not  in  this  way  can  any  impression  be  made  on  an  evil  so 
vast  as  Slavery — as  you  will  clearly  see  by  an  illustration  which  I  shall  give. 
The  god  Thor,  of  Scandinavian  mythology — whose  strength  surpassed  that 
of  Hercules — was  once  challenged  to  drain  a  simple  cup  dry.  He  applied 
it  to  his  lips,  and  with  superhuman  capacity  drank,  but  the  water  did  not 
recede  even  from  the  rim,  and  at  last  the  god  abandoned  the  effort.  The 
failure  of  even  his  extraordinary  strength  was  explained,  when  he  learned 
that  the  simple  cup  had  communicated,  by  an  invisible  connection,  with 
the  whole  vast  ocean  behind,  out  of  which  it  was  perpetually  supplied, 
and  which  remained  absolutely  unaffected  by  the  effort.  And  just  so  will 
these  occasions  of  chanty,  though  encountered  by  the  largest  private 
means,  be  constantly  renewed,  for  they  communicate  with  the  whole 
Black  Sea  of  Slavery  behind,  out  of  which  they  are  perpetually  supplied, 
and  which  remains  absolutely  unaffected  by  the  effort.  Sir,  private 
means  may  cope  with  individual  necessities,  but  they  are  powerless  to 
redress  the  evils  of  a  wicked  institution.  Charity  is  limited  and  local ; 
the  evils  of  Slavery  are  infinite  and  everywhere.  Besides,  a  wrong  or 
ganized  and  upheld  by  law,  can  be  removed  only  through  a  change  of 
the  law.  Not,  then,  by  an  occasional  contribution  to  ransom  a  slave 
can  your  duty  be  done  in  this  great  cause ;  but  only  by  earnest,  con 
stant,  valiant  efforts  against  the  institution — against  the  law — which 
makes  slaves. 

I  am  not  insensible  to  the  difficulties  of  this  work.  Full  well  I  know 
the  power  of  Slavery.  Full  well  I  know  all  its  various  intrenchments 
in  the  Church,  the  politics  and  the  prejudices  of  the  country.  Full  well 
I  know  the  sensitive  interests  of  property,  amounting  to  many  hundred 


WHY   SLAVERY   CONCERNS   THE   NORTH. 

millions  of  dollars,  which  are  said  to  be  at  stake.  But  these  things  can 
furnish  no  motive  or  apology  for  indifference,  or  for  any  folding  of  the 
hands.  Surely  the  wrong  is  not  less  wrong  because  it  is  gigantic  ;  the 
evil  is  not  less  evil  because  it  is  immeasurable  ;  nor  can  the  duty  of 
perpetual  warfare  with  wrong  or  evil  be  in  this  instance  suspended. 
Nay,  because  Slavery  is  powerful — because  the  Enterprise  is  difficult— 
therefore  is  the  duty  of  all  more  exigent.  The  well-tempered  soul  does 
not  yield  to  difficulties,  but  presses  onward  forever  with  increased  re 
solution. 

And  here  the  question  occurs,  which  is  so  often  pressed  in  argument, 
or  in  taunt,  What  have  we  at  the  North  to  do  with  Slavery  ?  In  answer, 
I  might  content  myself  by  saying  that  as  members  of  the  human  family, 
bound  together  by  the  cords  of  a  common  manhood,  there  is  no  human 
wrong  to  which  we  can  justly  be  insensible,  nor  is  there  any  human 
sorrow  which  we  should  not  seek  to  relieve  ;  but  I  prefer  to  say,  on  this 
occasion,  that,  as  citizens  of  the  United  States,  anxious  for  the  good 
name,  the  repose  and  the  prosperity  of  the  Republic — that  it  may  be  a 
blessing  and  not  a  curse  to  mankind — there  is  nothing  among  all  its 
diversified  interests,  under  the  National  Constitution,  with  which,  at 
this  moment,  we  have  so  much  to  do  ;  nor  is  there  anything  with  regard 
to  which  our  duties  are  so  irresistibly  clear.  I  do  not  dwell  on  the 
scandal  of  Slavery  in  the  national  capital- -of  Slavery  in  the  national 
territories — of  the  coast-wise  slave-trade  on  the  high  seas  beneath  the 
national  flag, — all  of  which  are  outside  of  State  limits,  and  within  the 
exclusive  jurisdiction  of  Congress,  where  you  and  I,  sir,  and  every  free 
man  of  the  North,  are  compelled  to  share  the  responsibility  and  help 
to  bind  the  chain.  To  dislodge  Slavery  from  these  usurped  footholds 
under  the  Constitution,  and  thus  at  once  to  relieve  ourselves  from  a 
grievous  responsibility,  and  to  begin  the  great  work  of  emancipation, 
were  an  object  worthy  of  an  exalted  ambition.  But  before  even  this 
can  be  commenced,  there  is  a  great  work,  more  than  any  other  import 
ant  and  urgent,  which  must  be  consummated  in  the  domain  of  national 
politics,  and  also  here  at  home  in  the  Free  States.  The  N  itional  Gov 
ernment  itself  must  be  emancipated,  so  that  it  shall  no  longer  wear  the 
yoke  of  servitude  ;  and  Slavery  in  all  its  pretensions  must  be  dislodged 
from  its  usurped  foothold,  in  the  Free  States  themselves,  thus  relieving 
ourselves  from  a  grievous  responsibility  at  our  own  door,  and  emanci: 
pating  the  North.  Emancipation,  even  within  the  national  jurisdiction, 
can  be  achieved  only  through  the  emancipation  of  tlic  Free  States,  ac 
companied  by  the  complete  emancipation  of  the  National  Government. 


MASTERDOM   OF   SLAVE   OLIGARCHY.  1 93 

Ay,  sir,  emancipation  at  the  South  can  be  reached  only  through  the 
emancipation  of  the  North.  And  this  is  my  answer  to  the  interroga 
tory  :  What  have  we  at  the  North  to  do  with  Slavery  ? 


XXXII. 

But  the  answer  may  be  made  yet  more  irresistible,  while,  with  min 
gled  sorrow  and  shame,  I  portray  the  tyrannical  power  which  holds  us 
in  thraldom.  Notwithstanding  all  its  excess  of  numbers,  wealth  and 
intelligence,  the  North  is  now  the  vassal  of  an  OLIGARCHY,  whose 
single  inspiration  comes  from  Slavery.  According  to  the  official  tables 
of  our  recent  census,  the  slave-masters — men,  women,  and  children  all 
told— are  only  THREE  HUNDRED  AND  FORTY-SEVEN  THOU 
SAND  ;  and  yet  this  small  company  now  dominates  over  the  Republic, 
determines  its  national  policy,  disposes  of  its  offices,  and  sways  all  to 
its  absolute  will.  With  a  watchfulness  that  never  sleeps,  and  an  activ 
ity  that  never  tires — with  as  many  eyes  as  Argus,  and  as  many  arms  as 
Briareus— the  SLAVE  OLIGARCHY  asserts  its  perpetual  and  insati 
ate  masterdom  ;  now  seizing  a  broad  territory  once  covered  by  a  time- 
honored  ordinance  of  Freedom  ;  now  threatening  to  wrest  Cuba  from 
Spain  by  violent  war,  or  hardly  less  violent  purchase  ;  now  hankering 
for  another  slice  of  Mexico,  merely  to  find  new  scope  for  Slavery ;  now 
proposing  once  more  to  open  the  hideous,  heaven-defying  Slave-trade,, 
and  thus  to  replenish  its  shambles  with  human  flesh  ;  and  now,  by  the- 
lips  of  an  eminent  Senator,  asserting  an  audacious  claim  to  the  whole- 
group  of  the  West  Indies,  whether  held  by  Holland,  Spain,  France,  or 
England,  as  "our  Southern  Islands,"  while  it  assails  the  independence 
of  Hayti,  and  stretches  its  treacherous  ambition  even  to  the  distant  val 
ley  of  the  Amazon. 

In  maintaining  its  power,  the  Slave  Oligarchy  has  applied  a  new  test 
for  office,  very  different  from  that  of  Jefferson  :  "  Is  he  honest ;  is  he 
capable  ?  is  he  faithful  to  the  Constitution  ?  "  These  things  are  all  for 
gotten  now  in  the  controlling  question,  "Is  he  faithful  to  Slavery?" 
With  arrogant  ostracism  it  excludes  from  every  national  office  all  who 
cannot  respond  to  this  test.  So  complete  and  irrational  has  this  tyranny 
become,  that,  at  this  moment,  while  I  now  speak,  could  Washington, 
Jefferson,  or  Franklin  once  more  descend  from  their  spheres  above,  to 
mingle  in  our  affairs  and  bless  us  with  their  wisdom,  not  one  of  them, 
with  his  recorded,  unretracted  opinions  on  Slavery,  could  receive  a 
13 


194  GIANT  STRENGTH   USED   HEARTLESSLY. 

nomination  for  the  Presidency  from  a  National  Convention  of  either  of 
the  late  great  political  parties  ;  nor,  stranger  still,  could  either  of  these 
sainted  patriots,  whose  names  alone  open  a  perpetual  fountain  of  grati 
tude  in  all  your  hearts,  be  confirmed  by  the  Senate  of  the  United  States 
for  any  political  function  whatever  under  the  National  Government — 
not  even  for  the  office  of  Postmaster.  What  I  now  say,  amidst  your 
natural  astonishment,  I  have  more  than  once  uttered  from  my  seat  in 
the  Senate,  and  no  man  there  has  made  answer,  for  no  man,  who  has 
sat  in  its  secret  sessions  and  there  learned  the  test  which  is  practically 
applied,  could  make  answer ;  and  I  ask  you  to  accept  this  statement  as 
my  testimony  derived  from  the  experience  which  has  been  my  lot.  Yes, 
fellow-citizens,  had  this  test  prevailed  in  the  earlier  days,  Washington — 
first  in  war,  first  in  peace,  first  in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen — could  not 
have  been  created  Generalissimo  of  the  American  forces ;  Jefferson 
could  not  have  taken  his  place  on  the  Committee  to  draft  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence  ;  and  Franklin  could  not  have  gone  forth  to  France, 
with  the  commission  of  the  infant  Republic,  to  secure  the  invaluable 
alliance  of  that  ancient  kingdom. 

And  this  giant  strength  is  used  with  a  giant  heartlessness.  By  a  cruel 
enactment,  which  has  no  source  in  the  Constitution — which  defies  jus 
tice — which  tramples  on  humanity — and  which  rebels  against  God,  the 
Free  States  are  made  the  hunting-ground  for  slaves,  and  you,  and  I, 
and  all  good  citizens,  are  -summoned  to  join  in  the  loathsome  and  ab 
horred  work.  Your  hearts  and  judgments,  swift  to  feel  and  to  condemn, 
will  not  require  me  to  expose  here  the  abomination  of  the  Fugitive 
.Slave  Bill  or  its  utter  unconstitutionally.  Elsewhere  I  have  done  this, 
and  never  been  answered.  Nor  will  you  expect  that  an  enactment,  so 
entirely  devoid  of  all  just  sanction,  should  be  called  by  the  sacred  name 
of  law.  History  still  repeats  the  language  in  which  our  fathers  perse 
vered,  when  they  denounced  the  last  emanation  of  British  tyranny  which 
heralded  the  Revolution,  as  the  Boston  Port  Bill,  and  I  am  content 
with  this  precedent.  I  have  said  that  if  any  man  finds  in  the  Gospel 
any  support  of  Slavery,  it  is  because  Slavery  is  already  in  himself;  so  do 
I  now  say,  if  any  man  finds  in  the  Constitution  of  our  country  any  sup 
port  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  it  is  because  that  Bill  is  already  in  himself. 
One  of  our  ancient  Masters — Aristotle,  I  think — tells  us  that  every  man 
has  a  beast  in  his  bosom ;  but  the  Northern  citizen,  who  has  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill  there,  has  worse  than  a  beast — a  devil !  And  yet  in  this 
Bill — more  even  than  in  the  ostracism  at  which  you  rebel — does  the 
.Slave  Oligarchy  stand  confessed ;  heartless,  grasping,  tyrannical ;  care- 


THE   GREAT  DUTY   OF  THE  NORTH.  195 

less  of  humanity,  right,  or  the  Constitution  ;  wanting  that  foundation  of 
justice  which  is  the  essential  base  of  every  civilized  community ;  stuck 
together  only  by  confederacy  in  spoliation ;  and  constituting  in  itself  a 
magnum  latrocinium ;  while  it  degrades  the  Free  States  to  the  condi 
tion  of  a  slave  plantation,  under  the  lash  of  a  vulgar,  despised  and  re 
volting  overseer. 

Surely,  fellow-citizens,  without  hesitation  or  postponement  you  will 
insist  that  this  Oligarchy  shall  be  overthrown ;  and  here  is  the  foremost 
among  the  special  duties  of  the  North,  now  required  for  the  honor  of 
the  republic,  for  our  own  defence,  and  in  obedience  to  God.  Urging 
this  comprehensive  duty,  I  ought  to  have  hours  rather  than  minutes 
before  me ;  but,  in  a  few  words,  you  shall  see  its  comprehensive  im 
portance.  Prostrate  the  Slave  Oligarchy — and  the  wickedness  of  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill  will  be  expelled  from  the  statute-book.  Prostrate 
the  Slave  Oligarchy — and  Slavery  will  cease  at  once  in  the  national 
capital.  Prostrate  the  Slave  Oligarchy — and  liberty  will  become  the 
universal  law  of  all  the  national  territories.  Prostrate  the  Slave  Oli 
garchy — and  the  Slave-trade  will  no  longer  skulk  along  our  coasts,  be 
neath  the  national  flag.  Prostrate  the  Slave  Oligarchy — and  the  na 
tional  government  will  be  at  length  divorced  from  Slavery.  Prostrate 
the  Slave  Oligarchy — and  the  national  policy  will  be  exchanged  from 
Slavery  to  Freedom.  Prostrate  the  Slave  Oligarchy — and  the  North 
will  be  no  longer  the  vassal  of  the  South.  Prostrate  the  Slave  Oligar 
chy — and  the  North  will  be  admitted  to  its  just  share  in  the  trusts  and 
honors  of  the  Republic.  Prostrate  the  Slave  Oligarchy — and  you  will 
possess  the  master-key  to  unlock  the  whole  house  of  bondage.  Pros 
trate  the  Slave  Oligarchy — and  the  gates  of  emancipation  will  be  open 
at  the  South. 

But,  without  waiting  for  this  consummation,  there  is  another  special 
duty  to  be  done  here  at  home,  on  our  own  soil,  which  must  be  made 
free  in  reality,  as  in  name.  And  here  I  shall  speak  frankly,  though  not 
without  a  proper  sense  of  the  responsibility  of  my  words.  I  know  that 
I  cannot  address  you  entirely  as  a  private  citizen  ;  but  I  shall  say  nothing 
here  which  I  have  not  said  elsewhere,  and  which  I  shall  not  be  proud 
to  vindicate  everywhere.  "  A  lie,"  it  has  been  declared,  "  should  be 
trampled  out  and  extinguished  forever,"  and  surely  you  will  do  nothing 
less  with  a  tyrannical  and  wicked  enactment.  The  Fugitive  Slave  Bill, 
while  it  continues  unrepealed,  must  be  made  a  dead  letter ;  not  by  vio 
lence  ;  not  by  any  unconstitutional  activity  or  intervention ;  not  even 
by  hasty  conflict  between  jurisdictions ;  but  by  an  aroused  Public 


196  MR.  HAYES'  NOBLE  RESIGNATION. 

Opinion,  which,  in  its  irresistible  might,  shall  blast  with  contempt,  in 
dignation  and  abhorrence,  all  who  consent  to  be  its  agents.  Thus  did 
our  fathers  blast  all  who  became  the  agents  of  the  Stamp  Act ;  and 
surely  their  motive  was  small  compared  with  ours.  The  Slave-hunter 
who  drags  his  victim  from  Africa  is  loathed  as  a  monster  ;  but  I  defy- 
any  acuteness  of  reason  to  indicate  the  moral  difference  between  his 
act  and  that  of  the  Slave-hunter  who  drags  his  victim  from  our  Northern 
free  soil.  A  few  puny  persons,  calling  themselves  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States,  with  the  titles  of  Representatives  and  Senators,  cannot 
turn  wrong  into  right — cannot  change  a  man  into  a  thing — cannot  re 
verse  the  irreversible  law  of  God — cannot  make  him  wicked  who  hunts 
a  slave  on  the  burning  sands  of  Congo  or  Guinea,  and  make  him  virtu 
ous  who  hunts  a  slave  in  the  colder  streets  of  Boston  or  New  York. 
Nor  can  any  acuteness  of  reason  distinguish  between  the  bill  of  sale  from 
the  kidnapper,  by  which  the  unhappy  African  was  originally  transferred 
in  Congo  or  Guinea,  and  the  certificate  of  the  Commissioner,  by  which, 
when  once  again  in  Freedom,  he  was  reduced  anew  to  bondage.  The 
acts  are  kindred,  and  should  share  a  kindred  condemnation. 

One  man's  virtue  becomes  a  standard  of  excellence  for  all ;  and  there 
is  now  in  Boston,  a  simple  citizen,  whose  example  may  be  a  lesson  to 
Commissioners,  Marshals,  Magistrates ;  while  it  fills  all  with  the  beauty 
of  a  generous  act.  I  refer  to  Mr.  Hayes,  who  resigned  his  place  in  the 
city  police  rather  than  take  any  part  in  the  pack  of  the  Slave-hunter. 
He  is  now  the  doorkeeper  of  the  public  edifice  which  has  been  honored 
this  winter  by  the  triumphant  lectures  on  Slavery.  Better  be  a  door 
keeper  in  the  house  of  the  Lord  than  a  dweller  in  the  tents  of  the  un 
godly.  For  myself,  let  me  say,  that  I  can  imagine  no  office,  no  salary, 
no  consideration,  which  I  would  not  gladly  forego  rather  than  become 
in  any  way  an  agent  for  the  enslavement  of  my  brother-man.  Where, 
for  me,  would  be  comfort  or  solace  after  such  a  work  !  In  dreams  and 
waking  hours,  in  solitude  and  in  the  street,  in  the  study  of  the  open 
book  and  in  conversation  with  the  world, — wherever  I  turned,  there  my 
victim  would  stare  me  in  the  face ;  while  from  the  distant  rice-fields 
and  sugar  plantations  of  the  South,  his  cries  beneath  the  vindictive  lash, 
his  moans  at  the  thought  of  liberty  once  his,  now,  alas  !  ravished  away, 
would  pursue  me,  repeating  the  tale  of  his  fearful  doom,  and  sounding 
— forever  sounding — in  my  ears,  "  Thou  art  the  man."  Mr.  President, 
may  no  such  terrible  voice  fall  on  your  soul  or  mine  ! 

Yes,  sir,  here  our  duty  is  plain  and  paramount.  While  the  Slave 
Oligarchy,  through  its  unrepealed  Slave  Bill,  undertakes  to  enslave  our 


THIS   ENTERPRISE  MUST  GO   ON.  197 

free  soil,  we  can  only  turn  for  protection  to  a  Public  Opinion  worthy 
of  a  humane,  just  and  religious  people,  which  shall  keep  perpetual 
guard  over  the  liberties  of  all  within  our  borders ,  nay  more,  which,  like 
the  flaming  sword  of  the  cherubim  at  the  gates  of  Paradise,  turning  on 
every  side,  shall  prevent  any  Slave-hunter  from  ever  setting  foot  on  our 
sacred  soil.  Elsewhere  he  may  pursue  his  human  prey ;  he  may  em 
ploy  his  congenial  blood-hounds,  and  exult  in  his  successful  game.  But 
into  these  domains  of  Freedom  he  must  not  come.  And  this  Public 
Opinion,  with  Freedom  as  its  watchword,  must  proclaim  not  only  the 
overthrow  of  the  Slave  Bill,  but  also  the  overthrow  of  the  Slave  Oli 
garchy  behind, — the  two  pressing  duties  of  the  North,  essential  to  our 
own  emancipation ;  and  believe  me,  sir,  while  they  remain  undone,  no 
thing  is  done. 

XXXIII. 

Mr.  President,  far  already  have  I  trespassed  upon  your  generous 
patience  ;  but  there  are  other  things  which  still  press  for  utterance. 
Something  would  I  say  of  the  arguments  by  which  our  Enterprise 
is  commended ;  something  also  of  the  appeal  it  makes  to  men  of 
every  condition ;  and  something  also  of  union,  as  a  vital  necessity 
among  all  who  love  Freedom. 

I  know  not  if  our  work  can  be  soon  accomplished.  I  know  not, 
sir,  if  you  or  I  can  live  to  see  in  our  Republic  the  vows  of  the  Fathers 
at  length  fulfilled,  as  the  last  fetter  falls  from  the  limbs  of  the  last  slave. 
But  one  thing  I  do  know,  beyond  all  doubt  or  question,  that  this  Enter 
prise  must  go  on — that  in  its  irresistible  current,  it  will  sweep  schools, 
colleges,  churches,  the  intelligence,  the  conscience,  and  the  religious 
aspirations  of  the  land,  while  all  who  stand  in  its  way  or  speak  evil  of 
it,  are  laying  up  for  their  children,  if  not  for  themselves,  days  of  sorrow 
and  shame.  Better  to  strive  in  this  cause,  even  unsuccessfully,  than 
never  to  strive  at  all. 

There  is  no  weapon  in  the  celestial  armory  of  truth  ;  there  is  no 
sweet  influence  from  the  skies  ;  there  is  no  generous  word  that  ever 
dropped  from  human  lips,  which  may  not  be  employed.  Ours,  too,  is 
the  argument  alike  of  the  Conservative  and  the  Reformer,  for  our  course 
stands  on  the  truest  conservatism  and  the  truest  reform.  It  seeks  the 
conservation  of  Freedom  itself  and  of  its  kindred  historic  principles ; 
it  seeks  also  the  reform  of  Slavery  and  of  the  kindred  tyranny  by  which 
it  is  upheld.  Religion,  morals,  justice,  economy,  the  Constitution,  may 


198  INSCRIPTIONS   ON  ACHILLES'    SHIELD. 

each  and  all  be  invoked ;  and  one  person  is  touched  by  one  argument, 
while  another  person  is  touched  by  another.  You  do  not  forget  how 
Christopher  Columbus  won  Isabella  of  Spain  to  his  enterprise  of  dis 
covery.  He  first  presented  to  her  the  temptation  of  extending  her  do 
minions  ;  but  she  hearkened  not.  He  next  promised  to  her  the  daz 
zling  wealth  of  the  Indies ;  and  still  she  hearkened  not.  But  when  at 
last  was  pictured  to  her  pious  imagination  the  poor  heathen  with  souls 
to  be  saved,  then  the  youthful  Queen  poured  her  royal  jewels  into 
the  lap  of  the  Genoese  adventurer,  and,  at  her  expense,  that  small 
fleet  was  sent  forth  which  gave  to  Spain  and  to  mankind  a  New  World. 

As  in  this  enterprise  there  is  a  place  for  every  argument,  so  also  is 
there  a  place  for  every  man.  Even  as  on  the  broad  shield  of  Achilles, 
sculptured  by  divine  art,  was  wrought  every  form  of  human  activity  ;  so 
in  this  cause,  which  ib  the  very  shield  of  Freedom,  whatever  man  can 
do  by  deed  or  speech,  may  find  its  place.  One  may  act  in  one  way, 
and  another  in  another  way;  but  all  must  act.  Providence  is  felt 
through  individuals  ;  the  dropping  of  water  wears  away  the  rock ;  and 
no  man  can  be  so  humble  or  poor  as  to  be  excused  from  this  work, 
while  to  all  the  happy  in  genius,  fortune  or  fame,  it  makes  a  special  ap 
peal.  Here  is  room  for  the  strength  of  Luther,  and  the  sweetness  of 
Melancthon ;  for  the  wisdom  of  age,  and  the  ardor  of  youth ;  for  the 
judgment  of  the  statesman,  and  the  eloquence  of  the  orator ;  for  the 
grace  of  the  scholar,  and  the  aspiration  of  the  poet ;  for  the  learning 
'  of  the  professor,  and  the  skill  of  the  lawyer ;  for  the  exhortation  of  the 
preacher,  and  the  persuasion  of  the  press  ;  for  the  various  energy  of  the 
citizen,  and  the  abounding  sympathy  of  woman. 

And  still  one  thing  more  is  needed,  without  which  Liberty-loving 
men,  and  even  their  arguments,  will  fail  in  power — even  as  without 
chanty  all  graces  of  knowledge,  speech  and  faith  are  said  to  profit  noth 
ing.  I  mean  that  Unity  of  Spirit — in  itself  a  fountain  of  strength — 
which,  filling  the  people  of  the  North,  shall  make  them  tread  under  foot 
past  antipathies,  decayed  dissensions,  and  those  irritating  names  which 
now  exist  only  as  the  tattered  ensigns  of  ancient  strife.  It  is  right  to 
be  taught  by  the  enemy ;  and  with  their  example  before  us  and  their 
power  brandished  in  our  very  faces,  we  cannot  hesitate.  With  them 
Slavery  is  made  the  main-spring  of  political  life,  and  the  absorbing  cen 
tre  of  political  activity ;  with  them  all  differences  are  swallowed  up  by 
this  one  idea,  as  all  other  rods  were  swallowed  up  by  the  rod  of  Aaron  ; 
with  them  all  unite  to  keep  the  national  government  under  the  control 
of  slave-masters ;  and  surely  we  should  not  do  less  for  Freedom  than 


THE   PRESS   ON   THE   LECTURE.  199 

they  do  for  Slavery.  We  too  must  be  united.  Among  us  at  last  mutual 
criticism,  crimination,  and  feud  must  give  place  to  mutual  sympathy, 
trust  and  alliance.  Face  to  face  against  the  SLAVE  OLIGARCHY  must  be 
rallied  the  UNITED  MASSES  of  the  North,  in  compact  political  as 
sociation — planted  on  the  everlasting  base  of  justice — knit  together  by 
the  instincts  of  a  common  danger,  and  by  the  holy  sympathies  of  hu 
manity — enkindled  by  a  love  of  Freedom,  not  only  for  themselves,  but 
for  others — determined  to  enfranchise  the  national  government  from 
degrading  thraldom  —  and  constituting  the  BACKBONE  PARTY, 
powerful  in  numbers,  wealth,  and  intelligence,  but  more  powerful  still 
in  an  inspiring  cause.  Let  this  be  done,  and  victory  will  be  ours. 

XXXIV. 

We  make  some  extracts  from  the  press,  and  individuals 
of  distinction,  which  will  indicate  the  impression  left  by 
that  address.  The  Tribune  said  : 

Mr.  Sumner's  speech  last  night  was  the  greatest  rhetorical  and  logi 
cal  success  of  the  year,  and  was  most  enthusiastically  praised  by  the 
largest  audience  yet  gathered  in  New  York  to  hear  a  lecture. 

The  interest  was  such  that  he  was  constrained,  much 
against  his  disposition,  to  repeat  it  in  Brooklyn,  as  he  was 
afterwards  at  Niblo's  Theatre  in  New  York.  In  intro 
ducing  him  to  the  Brooklyn  audience,  Mr.  Beecher  said  : 

I  am  to  introduce  to  you  a  statesman  who  follows  a  long  train  of  rep 
resentatives  and  statesmen  who  were  false  to  the  North,  false  to  liberty ; 
then  they  made  a  complaint  that  there  was  no  North  !  It  was  because 
the  North  lost  faith  in  her  recreant  children.  It  lost  faith  in  its  trai 
tors,  and  not  in  Liberty.  Now,  if  the  haughty  Southerners  wish  to  en 
gage  in  any  more  conflict  of  this  kind,  I  think  they  will  have  to  find 
some  other  than  the  speaker  to-night,  with  whom  to  break  a  lance.  I 
do  not  wish  merely  to  introduce  to  you  the  "Honorable  Gentleman" 
sent  from  Massachusetts  as  a  United  States  Senator ;  my  wish  is  to  do 
better  than  that :  I  wish  to  introduce  to  you  the  man,  CHARLES  SUM- 
NER. 

After  the  repetition  of  the  lecture  at  Niblo's,  the  Trib 
une  spoke  thus : 


2OO  COUNT   GUROWSKI — MR.    SEWARD. 

That  a  lecture  should  be  repeated  in  New  York  is  a  rare  occurrence. 
That  a  lecture  on  Anti-Slavery  should  be  repeated  in  New  York,  even 
before  a  few  despised  fanatics,  is  an  unparalleled  occurrence.  But  that 
an  Anti-Slavery  lecture  should  be  expected,  night  after  night,  to  suc 
cessive  multitudes,  each  more  enthusiastic  than  the  last,  marks  an  epoch 
and  a  revolution  in  popular  feeling.  It  is  an  era  in  the  history  of  lib 
erty.  Niblo's  was  crowded  last  evening,  long  before  the  hour  of  com 
mencement.  Hundreds  stood  through  the  three  hours'  lecture.  We 
give  a  full  report  of  the  words,  but  only  of  the  words. 


The  press  of  the  country  everywhere  made  unex 
pectedly  strong  and  favorable  notices  of  the  lecture, 
and  it  was  reprinted  in  hundreds  of  journals.  In  speak 
ing  of  its  delivery  in  Metropolitan  Hall,  the  National 
Era,  at  Washington,  said  : 

Mr.  SUMNER  closed,  as  he  had  continued,  amid  loud  and  protracted 
applause,  especially  at  the  point  when  he  said  that  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Bill  must  be  made  a  dead  letter.  The  audience  seemed  wild  with 
enthusiasm.  Handkerchiefs  waved  from  fair  hands,  and  reporters 
almost  forgot  their  stolid  unconcern. 

'  Count  GUROWSKI,  writing  from  Brattleboro',   Vt,  in 
his  enthusiastic  style,  said : 

I  have  just  finished  the  reading  of  your  admirable  Oration.  I  am  en 
extase.  I  was  near  to  cry.  You  have  thrown  the  gauntlet  once  more 
to  the  "  Gentlemen  from  the  South,"  bravely,  decidedly,  and  pitilessly. 
Don't  be  astonished  if  they  shall  send  you,  covered  with  laurels  as  you 
are,  to  Coventry.  This,  undoubtedly,  they  will  do. 

Being  invited  to  deliver  the  same  address  at  Auburn, 
and  pressed  so  earnestly  that  he  could  not  refuse,  he 
was  introduced  to  the  audience  by  Mr.  SEWARD,  in 
these  words  : 

Fellow-citizens  :  A  dozen  years  ago  I  was  honored  by  being  chosen 
to  bring  my  neighbors  residing  here  to  the  acquaintance  of  a  statesman 
of  Massachusetts,  who  was  then  directing  the  last  energies  of  an 
illustrious  life  to  the  removal  of  the  crime  of  human  slavery  from  the 


REASONS  AGAINST  SECRECY  IN  THE   SENATE.          201 

soil  of  our  beloved  country — a  statesman  whose  course  I  had  chosen 
for  my  own  guidance — JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS,  the  "  old  man  eloquent." 
He  has  ascended  to  heaven  ;  you  and  I  yet  remain  in  the  field  of  toil  and 
duty ;  and  now,  by  a  rare  felicity,  I  have  your  instructions  to  present 
to  you  another  statesman  of  Massachusetts,  he  on  whose  shoulders  the 
mantle  of  the  departed  one  has  fallen,  and  who,  more  than  any  other 
of  the  many  great  and  virtuous  citizens  of  his  native  Commonwealth, 
illustrates  the  spirit  of  the  teacher,  whom,  like  us,  he  venerated  and 
loved  so  much,  a  companion  and  friend  of  my  own  public  labors — the 
young  "  man  eloquent,"  CHARLES  SUMNER. 


XXXV. 

* 

On  the  6th  of  April,  1853,  Mr.  CHASE,  of  Ohio,  in 
troduced  a  resolution  against  secrecy  in  the  proceedings 
of  the  Senate,  which  Mr.  SUMNER  supported  in  a  brief 
speech,  in  which  he  used  the  following  language  : 

In  the  Constitution  there  is  no  injunction  of  secrecy  on  any  of  the 
proceedings  of  the  Senate  ;  nor  is  there  any  requirement  of  publicity. 
To  the  Senate  is  left  absolutely  the  determination  of  its  rules  of  proceed 
ings.  In  thus  abstaining  from  all  regulation  of  this  matter  the  framers 
of  the  Constitution  have  obviously  regarded  it  as  in  all  respects  within 
the  discretion  of  the  Senate,  to  be  exercised  from  time  to  time  as  it 
thinks  best. 

The  Senate  exercises  three  important  functions  :  first ^  the  legislative 
or  parliamentary  power,  wherein  it  acts  concurrently  with  the  House  of 
Representatives,  as  well  as  the  President ;  secondly,  the  power  "  to  ad 
vise  and  consent  "to  treaties  with  foreign  countries  in  concurrence  with 
the  President ;  and,  thirdly,  the  power  "  to  advise  and  consent "  to 
nominations  by  the  President  to  offices  under  the  Constitution.  I  say 
nothing  of  another,  rarely  called  into  exercise,  the  sole  power  to  try 
impeachments. 

At  the  first  organization  of  the  Government  the  proceedings  of  the 
Senate,  whether  in  legislation  or  on  treaties  or  on  nominations,  were 
with  closed  doors.  In  this  respect  the  legislative  business  and  execu 
tive  business  were  conducted  alike.  This  continued  down  to  the  second 
session  of  the  Third  Congress,  in  1794,  when,  in  pursuance  of  a  formal 


202  SPEECH   IN   FANEUIL   HALL. 

resolution,  the  galleries  were  allowed  to  be  opened  so  long  as  the  Sen 
ate  were  engaged  in  their  legislative  capacity,  unless  in  such  cases  as 
might,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Senate,  require  secrecy ;  and  this  rule  has 
continued  ever  since.  Here  was  an  exercise  of  the  discretion  of  the 
Senate,  in  obvious  harmony  with  public  sentiment  and  the  spirit  of  our 
institutions. 

The  change  now  proposed  goes  still  further.  It  opens  the  doors  on 
all  occasions,  whether  legislative  or  executive,  except  when  specially 
ordered  otherwise.  The  Senator  from  South  Carolina  [Mr.  Butler]  says 
that  the  Senate  is  a  confidential  body,  and  should  be  ready  to  receive 
confidential  communications  from  the  President.  But  this  will  still  be 
the  case  if  we  adopt  the  resolution  now  under  consideration.  The 
limitation  proposed  seems  adequate  to  all  exigencies,  while  the  general 
rule  will  be  publicity.  The  Executive  sessions  with  closed  doors,  shroud 
ed  from  the  public  gaze  and  public  criticism,  constitute  an  exceptional 
part  of  our  system,  too  much  in  harmony  with  the  proceedings  of  other 
Governments  less  liberal  in  character.  The  genius  of  our  institutions 
requires  publicity.  The  ancient  Roman,  who  bade  his  architect  so  to 
construct  his  house  that  his  guests  and  all  that  he  did  could  be  seen  by 
the  world,  is  a  fit  model  for  the  American  people. 


XXXVI. 

Having  been  invited  by  the  leaders  of  the  Republican 
party  in  Boston  to  address  them  on  the  great  issues  of 
the  times,  Mr.  SUMNER  delivered  in  Faneuil  Hall — -No 
vember  2,  1855 — one  of  his  powerful  speeches  upon  the 
usurpations  of  the  Slave  Oligarchy,  which  constitutes  a 
fine  introduction  to  the  grandest,  perhaps,  of  all  his 
speeches,  so  soon  to  be  delivered  in  the  Senate,  on  THE 
CRIME  AGAINST  KANSAS.  He  began  by  addressing  these 
words  to  the  vast  multitude  that  packed  the  old  hall : 
"  Are  you  for  Freedom,  or  are  you  for  Slavery  ?  '  Under 
which  King,  Bezonian,  speak  or  die ! '  Are  you  for 
Freedom,  with  its  priceless  blessings,  or  are  you  for 
Slavery,  with  its  countless  wrongs  and  woes  ?  Are  you 


HE  ADDRESSES   ONLY   REPUBLICANS.  2O3 

for  God,  or  are  you  for  the  Devil  ?  "  After  the  wild 
shouts  and  screams  of  the  assembly  had  subsided,  he 
said  : 

Fellow-citizens,  I  speak  plainly;  nor  can  words  exhibiting  the  en 
ormity  of  Slavery  be  too  plain,  whether  it  be  regarded  simply  in  the 
legislative  and  judicial  decisions  by  which  it  is  upheld,  or  in  the  unques 
tionable  facts  by  which  its  character  is  revealed.  It  has  been  my  fortune 
latterly  to  see  Slavery  face  to  face  in  its  own  home,  in  the  Slave  States  ; 
and  I  take  this  early  opportunity  to  offer  my  testimony  to  the  open  bar 
barism  which  it  sanctions.  I  have  seen  a  human  being  knocked  off  at 
auction  on  the  steps  of  a  court-house,  and  as  the  sale  went  on,  com 
pelled  to  open  his  mouth  and  show  his  teeth,  like  a  horse  ;  I  have  been 
detained  in  a  stage-coach,  that  our  driver  might,  in  the  phrase  of  the 
country,  "help  lick  a  nigger;"  and  I  have  been  constrained,  at  a 
public  table,  to  witnesss  the  revolting  spectacle  of  a  poor  slave,  yet  a 
child,  almost  felled  to  the  floor  by  a  blow  on  the  head  from  a  clinched  fist. 
Such  incidents  were  not  calculated  to  shake  my  original  convictions. 
The  distant  slave-holder,  who,  in  generous  solicitude  for  that  truth  which 
makes  for  freedom,  feared  that,  like  a  certain  Doctor  of  Divinity,  I 
might,  under  the  influence  of  personal  kindness,  be  hastily  swayed  from 
these  convictions,  may  be  assured  that  I  saw  nothing  to  change  them  in 
one  tittle,  but  to  confirm  them  ;  while  I  was  entirely  satisfied  that  here  in 
Massachusetts,  where  all  read,  the  true  character  of  Slavery  is  better 
known  than  in  the  Slave  States  themselves,  where  ignorance  and  pre 
judice  close  the  avenues  of  knowledge. 

And  now,  grateful  for  the  attention  with  which  you  honor  me,  I  ven 
ture  to  hope  that  you  are  assembled  honestly  to  hear  the  truth  ;  not  to 
gratify  prejudice,  to  appease  personal  antipathies,  or  to  indulge  a  mor 
bid  appetite  for  excitement ;  but  with  candor  and  your  best  discrimina 
tion,  to  weigh  facts  and  arguments  in  order  to  determine  the  course  of 
duty.  I  address  myself  particularly  to  the  friends  of  Freedom — the 
Republicans — on  whose  invitation  I  appear  to-night,  but  I  make  bold 
to  ask  you  of  other  parties,  who  now  listen,  to  divest  yourselves  for  the 
time,  of  partisan  constraint — to  forget  for  the  moment  that  you  are 
Whigs  or  Democrats,  or  how  you  are  called,  and  to  remember  only  that 
you  are  men,  with  hearts  to  feel,  with  heads  to  understand,  and  with 
consciences  to  guide.  Then  only  will  you  be  in  a  condition  to  receive 
the  truth.  "  If  men  are  not  aware  of  the  probable  bias  of  party  over 


2O4  THE   QUESTION  NATIONAL  AND   LOCAL. 

them,  then  they  are  so  much  the  more  likely  to  be  blindly  governed  by 
it."  Such  is  the  wise  remark  of  Wilberforce  ;  and  I  fear  that  among  us 
there  are  too  many  who  are  unconsciously  governed  by  such  bias. 
There  are  men,  who,  while  professing  candor,  yet  show  that  the  bitter 
ness  of  party  has  entered  into  their  whole  character  and  lives,  as  the 
bitterness  of  the  soil  in  Sardinia  is  said  to  appear  even  in  its  honey. 

At  this  election  we  do  not  choose  a  President  of  the  United  States, 
or  member  of  Congress  ;  but  a  Governor,  Lieutenant-Governor,  At 
torney-General,  and  other  State  officers.  To  a  superficial  observer,  the 
occasion  seems  to  be  rather  local  than  national ;  it  seems  to  belong  to 
State  affairs  rather  than  Federal — to  Massachusetts  rather  than  to  the 
Unioa.  And  yet,  such  are  our  relations  to  the  Union — such  is  the  sol 
idarity  of  these  confederate  States — so  are  we  all  knit  together  as  a 
Plural  Unit,  that  the  great  question  which  now  disturbs  and  over 
shadows  the  whole  country,  becomes  at  once  national  and  local,  ad 
dressing  itself  alike  to  the  whole  Republic  and  to  each  constituent  part. 
Freedom  in  Kansas,  and  our  own  Freedom  here  at  home,  are  both 
assailed.  They  must  be  defended.  There  are  honorable  responsibili 
ties  belonging  to  Massachusetts,  as  an  early  and  constant  vindicator  of 
Freedom,  which  she  cannot  renounce.  "  If  the  trumpet  give  an  uncer 
tain  sound,,  who  shall  prepare  himself  for  the  battle?"  The  distant 
emigrant — the  whole  country — awaits  the  voice  of  our  beloved  Com 
monwealth  in  answer  to  the  question,  Are  you  for  Freedom  or  are  you 
for  Slavery  ?  So  transcendent,  so  exclusive,  so  all-absorbing  at  the 
present  juncture  is  this  question,  that  it  is  vain  to  speak  of  the  position 
of  candidates  on  other  things.  To  be  doubtful  on  this  is  to  be  wrong  ; 
and  to  be  wrong  on  this  is  to  be  wholly  wrong.  Passing  strange  it  is 
that  here  in  Massachusetts,  in  this  nineteenth  century,  we  should  be 
constrained  to  put  this  question.  Passing  strange,  that  when  it  is  put, 
there  should  be  any  hesitation  to  answer  it,  by  voice  and  vote,  in  such 
way  as  to  speak  the  loudest  for  Freedom. 


XXXVII. 

At  the  period  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  upwards  of  half 
a  million  colored  persons  were  held  as  chattels  in  the  United  States. 
These  unhappy  people  were  originally  stolen  from  Africa,  or  were  the 
children  of  those  who  had  been  stolen,  and,  though  distributed  through 
out  the  whole  country,  were  to  be  found  chiefly  in  the  Southern  States. 


OLD   ABOLITIONISM   IN   MASSACHUSETTS.  20$ 

The  Slavery  to  which  they  were  reduced  was  simply  a  continuation  of 
the  violence  by  which  they  had  been  originally  robbed  of  their  rights, 
and  was  of  course  as  indefensible.  The  fathers  of  the  Republic,  lead 
ers  of  the  war  of  Independence,  were  struck  with  the  inconsistency  of 
an  appeal  for  their  own  liberties  while  holding  in  bondage  fellow-men 
only  "  guilty  of  a  skin  not  colored  like  their  own."  The  same  con 
viction  animated  the  hearts  of  the  people,  whether  at  the  North  or 
South.  Out  of  ample  illustrations,  I  select  one  which  specially  reveals 
this  conviction,  and  possesses  a  local  interest  in  this  community.  It  is 
a  deed  of  manumission,  made  after  our  struggles  had  begun,  and  pre 
served  in  the  Probate  records  of  the  County  of  Suffolk.  Here  it  is  : 

"  Know  all  men  by  these  presents,  that  I,  JONATHAN  JACKSON,  of 
Newburyport,  in  the  county  of  Essex,  gentleman,  in  consideration  of  the 
impropriety  I  feel,  and  have  long  felt,  in  beholding  any  person  in  constant 
bondage — more  especially  at  a  time  when  my  country  is  so  warmly  con 
tending  for  the  liberty  every  man  ought  to  enjoy — and  having  some  time 
since  promised  my  negro  man,  POMP,  that  I  would  give  him  his  freedom, 
and  in  further  consideration  of  five  shillings,  paid  me  by  said  POMP,  I  do 
hereby  liberate,  manumit,  and  set  him  free  ;  and  I  do  hereby  remise 
and  release  unto  said  POMP,  all  demands  of  whatever  nature  I  have 
against  said  POMP. 

"In  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  seal,  this 
nineteenth  June,  1776. 

"JONATHAN  JACKSON.     [Seal] 

"  Witness,  Mary  Coburn,  William  Noyes." 

Such  was  the  general  spirit.  Public  opinion  found  free  vent  in  every 
channel.  By  the  literature  of  the  time— by  the  voice  of  the  Church, 
and  by  the  solemn  judgment  of  the  College,  Slavery  was  condemned, 
while  all  the  grandest  names  of  our  history  were  arrayed  openly  against 
it.  Of  these  I  might  dwell  on  many  ;  but  I  am  always  pleased  to  men 
tion  an  illustrious  triumvirate  from  whose  concurring  testimony  there 
can  be  no  appeal.  There  was  Washington,  who  at  one  time  declared 
that  "  it  was  among  his  first  wishes  to  see  some  plan  adopted  by  which 
Slavery  might  be  abolished  by  law,"  and  then  at  another,  that  to  this 
end  "  his  suffrage  should  not  be  wanting."  There  also  was  Jefferson, 
who  by  early  and  precocious  efforts  for  "total  emancipation,"  placed 
himself  foremost  among  the  Abolitionists  of  the  land — perpetually  de 
nouncing  Slavery — exposing  the  pernicious  influences  upon  the  master, 
as  well  as  the  Slave — declaring  that  the  love  of  justice  and  the  love  of 
country  pleaded  equally  for  the  Slave,  and  that  "  the  abolition  of  do 
mestic  Slavery  was  the  greatest  object  of  desire."  There  also  was  the 


2O6         THE  CONSTITUTION  ORDAINED   FOR  FREEDOM. 

venerable  patriot,  Benjamin  Franklin,  who  did  not  hesitate  to  liken  the 
American  master  of  black  Slaves  to  the  Algerine  corsair  with  his  white 
Slaves,  and  who,  as  President  of  the  earliest  Abolition  Society — the  same 
of  which  Passmore  Williamson  is  now  the  honored  Secretary — by  solemn 
petition,  called  upon  Congress  "  to  step  to  the  very  verge  of  the  power 
vested  in  it  to  discourage  every  species  of  traffic  in  the  persons  of  our 
fellow-men."  Thus  completely,  by  this  triumvirate  of  Freedom,  was 
Slavery  condemned,  and  the  power  of  the  Government  invoked  against  it. 

By  such  men,  and  in  such  spirit,  was  the  National  Constitution 
framed. 

The  emphatic  words  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  which  our 
country  took  upon  its  lips  as  baptismal  vows,  when  it  claimed  a  place 
among  the  nations  of  the  earth,  were  not  forgotten.  The  preamble  to 
the  Constitution  renews  them,  when  it  declares  the  object  of  the  people 
of  the  United  States  to  be,  among  other  things,  "  to  establish  justice,  to 
promote  the  general  welfare,  and  to  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to 
ourselves  and  posterity."  Thus,  according  to  undeniable  words,  the 
Constitution  was  ordained,  not  to  establish,  secure  or  sanction  slavery 
— not  to  promote  the  special  interest  of  slave-masters,  bound  togethei 
in  oligarchical  combination — not  to  make  Slavery  national  in  any  way, 
form  or  manner  ;  but  to  "  establish  justice,"  which  condemns  Slavery — • 
"to  promote  the  general  welfare,"  which  repudiates  every  Oligarchy — 
and  "  to  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty,"  in  whose  presence  human 
bondage  must  cease.  Early  in  the  Convention,  Gouverneur  Morris 
broke  forth  in  the  language  of  an  Abolitionist :  "  He  never  would  con 
cur  in  upholding  domestic  Slavery.  It  was  a  nefarious  institution.  It 
was  the  curse  of  Heaven."  In  another  mood,  and  with  mild  juridical 
phrase,  Mr.  Madison,  himself  a  slaveholder,  "  thought  it  wrong  to  ad 
mit  in  the  Constitution  the  idea  of  property  in  man."  The  discredita 
ble  words,  Slave  and  Slavery,  were  not  allowed  to  find  a  place  in  the 
instrument,  while  a  clause  was  subsequently  added  by  way  of  amend 
ment, — and,  therefore,  according  to  the  rules  of  interpretation,  particu 
larly  revealing  the  sentiments  of  the  founders, — which  is  calculated,  like 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  if  practically  applied,  to  carry  Free 
dom  everywhere  within  the  sphere  of  its  influence.  It  was  specifically 
declared  that  "  no  person  shall  be  deprived  of  life,  liberty  or  property, 
without  due  process  of  law"  that  is,  without  due  presentment,  indict 
ment  or  other  formal  judicial  proceedings.  Here  is  an  express  guard 
of  personal  Liberty,  and  a  prohibition  of  Slavery  everywhere  within  the 
national  jurisdiction. 


HORACE   MANN  IN   CONGRESS.  2O/ 

In  this  spirit  was  the  National  Constitution  adopted.  In  this  spirit 
the  National  Government  was  first  organized  under  Washington.  And 
here  there  is  a  fact  of  peculiar  significance,  well  worthy  of  perpetual 
memory.  At  the  time  this  great  chief  took  his  first  oath  to  support  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  the  National  Ensign  nowhere  within 
the  National  Territory  covered  a  single  slave.  On  the  sea,  an  exe 
crable  piracy,  the  trade  in  slaves,  was  still,  to  the  national  scandal,  tole 
rated,  beneath  the  national  flag.  In  the  States,  as  a  sectional  institu 
tion,  beneath  the  shelter  of  local  laws,  Slavery,  unhappily,  found  a  home. 
But  in  the  only  territories  at  this  time  belonging  to  the  Nation — the 
broad  region  of  the  North-West — it  had  already,  by  the  Ordinance  of 
Freedom,  been  made  impossible,  even  before  the  adoption  of  the  Con 
stitution.  The  District  of  Columbia,  with  its  Fated  Dowry,  had  not 
yet  been  acquired. 


XXXVIII. 

The  actual  number  of  slaveholders  in  the  country  was  for  a  long  time 
unknown,  and,  on  this  account,  was  naturally  exaggerated.  It  was 
often  represented  to  be  very  great.  On  one  occasion,  a  distinguished 
Representative  from  Massachusetts,  whose  name  will  be  ever  cherished 
for  his  devotion  to  Human  Rights,  the  Hon.  Horace  Mann,  was  rudely 
interrupted  on  the  floor  of  Congress  by  a  member  from  Alabama,  who 
averred  that  the  number  of  slaveholders  was  as  many  as  three  millions. 
At  that  time  there  was  no  official  document  by  which  this  assumption 
could  be  corrected.  But  at  last  we  have  it.  The  late  census,  taken  in 
1850,  shows  that  the  whole  number  of  this  peculiar  class — embracing 
men,  women  and  children,  all  told,  who  are  so  unfortunate  as  to  hold 
slaves — was  only  three  hundred  and  forty-seven  thousand ;  and,  of  this 
number,  the  larger  part  are  small  slaveholders,  leaving  only  ninety- 
two  thousand  persons  as  the  owners  of  the  great  mass  of  slaves,  and 
as  the  substantial  representatives  of  this  class.  And  yet  this  small 
company — sometimes  called  the  Slave  Power,  or  Black  Power,  better 
called  the  Slave  Oligarchy — now  dominates  over  the  Republic,  deter 
mines  its  national  policy,  disposes  of  its  offices,  and  sways  all  to  its 
absolute  will.  Yes,  fellow-citizens,  it  is  an  Oligarchy — odious  beyond 
precedent ;  heartless,  grasping,  tyrannical ;  careless  of  humanity,  right 
or  the  Constitution  ;  wanting  that  foundation  of  justice  which  is  the 
essential  base  of  every  civilized  community ;  stuck  together  only  by 


208          WHAT  THE  SLAVE   OLIGARCHY  APPROPRIATES. 

confederacy  in  spoliation ;  and  constituting  in  itself  a  magnum  latroci- 
nium  ;  while  it  degrades  the  Free  States  to  the  condition  of  a  slave  plan 
tation,  under  the  lash  of  a  vulgar,  despised  and  revolting  overseer. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  National  Government  which  the  Slave  Oligar 
chy  does  not  appropriate.  It  entered  into  and  possessed  both  the  old 
political  parties,  Whig  and  Democrat — as  witness  their  servile  resolu 
tions  at  Baltimore — making  them  one  in  subserviency,  though  double 
in  form  ;  and  renewing  in  them  the  mystery  of  the  Siamese  twins,  which, 
though  separate  in  body  and  different  in  name,  were  constrained,  by  an 
unnatural  ligament,  to  a  community  of  exertion.  It  now  holds  the  keys 
of  every  office,  from  that  of  President  down  to  the  humblest  Postmaster, 
compelling  all  to  do  its  bidding.  It  organizes  the  Cabinet.  It  directs 
the  Army  and  Navy.  It  manages  every  department  of  public  business. 
It  presides  over  the  census.  It  controls  the  Smithsonian  Institution, 
founded  by  the  generous  charity  of  a  foreigner,  to  promote  the  interests 
of  knowledge.  It  subsidizes  the  national  press,  alike  in  the  national 
capital  and  in  the  remotest  village  of  the  North.  It  sits  in  the  chair  of 
the  President  of  the  Senate,  and  also  in  the  chair  of  the  Speaker  of  the 
House.  It  arranges  the  Committees  of  both  bodies,  placing  at  their 
head  only  the  servitors  of  Slavery,  and  excluding  therefrom  the  friends 
of  Freedom,  though  entitled  to  such  places  by  their  character  and  the 
States  they  represent ;  and  thus  it  controls  the  legislation  of  the  country. 

In  maintaining  its  power,  the  Slave  Oligarchy  has  applied  a  test  for 
office  very  different  from  that  of  Jefferson,  "Is  he  honest?  Is  he  capa 
ble  ?  Is  he  faithful  to  the  Constitution  ?  "  These  things  are  all  forgot 
ten  now  in  the  single  question,  "Is  he  faithful  to  Slavery?"  With 
arrogant  ostracism  it  excludes  from  every  national  office  all  who  cannot, 
respond  to  this  test.  So  complete  and  irrational  has  this  tyranny  be 
come,  that  at  this  moment,  while  I  now  speak,  could  Washington,  or 
Jefferson,  or  Franklin,  once  more  descend  from  their  spheres  above,  to 
mingle  in  our  affairs  and  bless  us  with  their  wisdom,  not  one  of  them, 
with  his  recorded,  unretr acted  opinions  on  Slavery  could  receive  a  nomi 
nation  for  the  Presidency  from  either  of  the  political  parties  calling 
themselves  national ;  nor,  stranger  still,  could  either  of  these  sainted 
patriots,  whose  names  alone  open  a  perpetual  fountain  of  gratitude  in 
all  your  hearts,  be  confirmed  by  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  for  any 
political  function  whatever,  not  even  for  the  office  of  Postmaster.  What 
I  now  say,  amidst  your  natural  astonishment,  I  have  often  said  before 
in  addressing  the  people,  and  more  than  once  uttered  from  my  seat  in 
the  Senate,  and  no  man  there  has  made  answer,  for  no  man  who  sat  in 


INFERIORITY   OF   SLAVE   STATES.  2OQ 

its  secret  sessions,  and  there  learned  the  test  which  is  practically  ap 
plied,  could  make  answer ;  and  I  ask  you  to  accept  this  statement  as 
my  testimony,  derived  from  the  experience  of  four  years  which  has  been 
my  lot  under  the  commission  which  I  have  received  from  our  honored 
Commonwealth.  Yes,  fellow-citizens,  had  this  test  prevailed  in  the 
earlier  days,  Washington — first  in  war,  first  in  peace,  first  in  the  hearts 
of  his  countrymen — could  not  have  been  created  generalissimo  of  the 
American  forces  ;  Jefferson  could  not  have  taken  his  place  on  the  Com 
mittee  to  draft  the  Declaration  of  Independence ;  and  Franklin  could 
not  have  gone  forth  to  France,  with  the  commission  of  the  infant  Re 
public,  to  secure  the  invaluable  alliance  of  that  ancient  kingdom. 

All  tyranny,  like  murder,  is  foul  at  the  best ;  but  this  is  most  foul, 
strange  and  unnatural,  when  it  is  considered  that  the  States  which  are 
the  home  of  the  Slave  Oligarchy  are  far  inferior  to  the  Free  States  in 
population,  wealth,  education,  schools,  churches,  libraries,  manufactures 
and  resources  of  all  kinds.  By  the  last  census,  there  was  in  the  Free 
States  a  solid  population  of  freemen,  amounting  to  upwards  of  thirteen 
millions,  while  in  the  Slave  States  there  was  a  like  population  of  only 
six  millions.  In  other  respects,  important  to  civilization,  the  disparity 
was  as  great.  And  yet,  from  the  beginning,  they  have  taken  to  them 
selves  the  lion's  share  among  the  honors  and  trusts  of  the  Republic. 
But  without  exposing  the  game  of  political  "  sweepstakes  "  which  the 
Slave  Oligarchy  has  perpetually  played — interesting  as  it  \vould  be — I 
prefer  to  hold  up  for  one  moment  the  assumptions,  aggressions  and 
usurpations  by  which,  in  defiance  of  the  Constitution,  it  has  made 
Slavery  national,  when  it  is,  in  reality,  sectional. 

Early  in  this  century,  when  the  District  of  Columbia  was  fiually  oc 
cupied  as  the  National  Capital,  the  Slave  Oligarchy  succeeded,  in 
defiance  of  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution,  and  even  of  the  express  let 
ter  of  one  of  its  amendments,  in  securing  for  Slavery,  within  the 
District,  the  countenance  of  the  National  Government.  Until  then 
Slavery  had  existed  nowhere  on  the  land  within  the  reach  and  exclusive 
jurisdiction  of  this  Government. 

The  Slave  Oligarchy  next  secured  for  Slavery  another  recognition 
under  the  National  Government,  in  the  broad  territory  of  Louisiana, 
purchased  from  France. 

The  Slave  Oligarchy  next  placed  Slavery  again  under  the  sanction  of 
the  National  Government,  in  the  territory  of  Florida,  purchased  from 
Spain. 

The  Slave  Oligarchy,  waxinj  powerful,  wa;  able,,  after  a  severe  strug- 


2IO  USURPATIONS  OF  SLAVERY. 

gle,  to  dictate  terms  to  the  National  Government,  in  the  Missouri  Com 
promise,  compelling  it  to  receive  that  State  into  the  Union  with  a 
slave-holding  Constitution. 

The  Slave  Oligarchy  instigated  and  carried  on  a  most  expensive  war 
in  Florida,  mainly  to  recover  fugitive  slaves,  thus  degrading  the  army  of 
the  United  States  to  be  Slave-hunters. 

The  Slave  Oligarchy  wrested  from  Mexico  the  Province  of  Texas, 
and,  triumphing  over  all  opposition,  finaHy  secured  its  admission  into 
the  Union,  with  a  Constitution  making  Slavery  perpetual. 

The  Slave  Oligarchy  plunged  the  country  in  war  with  Mexico,  in 
order  to  gain  new  lands  for  Slavery. 

The  Slave  Oligarchy,  with  the  meanness  as  well  as  the  insolence  of 
tyranny,  has  compelled  the  National  Government  to  abstain  from 
acknowledging  the  neighbor  republic  of  Hayti,  where  slaves  have 
become  freemen,  and  established  an  independent  nation. 

The  Slave  Oligarchy  has  compelled  the  National  Government  to 
.-stoop  ignobly  before  the  British  Queen,  to  secure  compensation  for 
.-slaves,  who,  in  the  exercise  of  the  natural  rights  of  man,  had  asserted 
.and  .achieved  their  freedom  on  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and  afterwards 
sought  shelter  in  Bermuda. 

The  Slave  Oligarchy  has  compelled  the  National  Government  to 
:seek  to  negotiate  treaties  for  the  surrender  of  fugitive  slaves,  thus 
.making  our  Republic  assert  abroad,  in  foreign  lands,  property  in 
,  human  flesh. 

The  Slave  Oligarchy  has  joined  in  declaring  the  foreign  slave-trade 
piracy,  but  insists  on  the  coastwise  slave-trade,  under  the  auspices  of 
;the  National  Government. 

The  Slave  Oligarchy  for  several  years  rejected  the  petitions  to  Con-' 
;  gress  adverse  to  Slavery,  thus,  in  order  to  shield  this  wrong,  practically 
.denying  the  right  of  petition. 

The  Slave  Oligarchy,  in  defiance  of  the  privileges  secured  under  the 
*  Constitution  of  the. United  States,  imprisons  the  free  colored  citizens 
.  of  Massachusetts,  and  sometimes  sells  them  into  bondage. 

The  Slave  Oligarchy  insulted  and  exiled  from   Charleston  and  New 
'  Orleans  the  honored  representatives  of  Massachusetts,  who  were  sent 
to  those  places  with  the  commission  of  the  Commonwealth,  in  order 
to  throw  the  shield  of  the  Constitution  over  her  colored  citizens. 

The  Slave  Oligarchy  has,  by  the  pen  of  Mr.  Calhoun,  as  Secretary 
of  State,  in  formal  despatches,  made  the  Republic  stand  before  the 
.nations  of  the  earth  as  the  vindicator  of  Slavery. 


EVERY  DEMAND   OF   SLAVERY   CONCEDED.  2.1 1 

The  Slave  Oligarchy  has  put  forth  the  hideous  effrontery  that  Slavery 
can  go  to  all  newly  acquired  territories,  and  enjoy  the  protection  of  the 
National  Flag. 

The  Slave  Oligarchy  has  imposed  upon  the  country  an  Act  of  Con 
gress,  for  the  recovery  of  fugitive  slaves,  revolting  in  its  mandates,  and 
many  times  unconstitutional ;  especially  on  two  grounds,  first,  as  a 
usurpation  by  Congress  of  powers  not  granted  by  the  Constitution, 
and  an  infraction  of  rights  secured  to  the  States ;  and  secondly,  as  a 
denial  of  Trial  by  Jury,  in  a  question  of  Personal  Liberty,  and  a  suit 
at  common  law. 

The  Slave  Oligarchy,  in  defiance  of  the  declared  desires  of  the 
Fathers  to  limit  and  discourage  Slavery,  has  successively  introduced 
into  the  Union,  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Alabama,  Mississippi, 
Louisiana,  Missouri,  Arkansas  and  Texas,  as  slave-holding  States, 
thus,  at  each  stage  fortifying  its  political  power,  and  making  the 
National  Government  give  new  sanction  to  Slavery. 

Such,  fellow-citizens,  are  some  of  the  assumptions,  aggressions  and 
usurpations  of  the  Slave  Oligarchy !  By  such  steps  the  National 
Government  has  been  perverted  from  its  original  purposes,  its 
character  changed,  and  its  powers  all  surrendered  to  Slavery.  Surely, 
no  patriot  soul  can  listen  to  this  recital  without  confessing  that  our 
first  political  duty  is,  at  all  hazards  and  without  compromise,  to  oppose 
this  Oligarchy,  to  dislodge  it  from  the  National  Government,  and  to 
bring  the  administration  back  to  that  character  which  it  enjoyed  when 
first  organized  under  Washington,  himself  an  Abolitionist,  and  sur 
rounded  by  Abolitionists,  while  the  whole  country,  by  its  Church,  its 
Colleges,  its  Literature,  and  all  its  best  voices,  was  united  against 
Slavery,  and  the  National  Flag  nowhere  within  the  national  territory 
covered  a  single  slave. 


XXXIX. 

Fellow-citizens,  I  have  said  enough  to  stir  you ;  but  this  humiliating 
tale  is  not  yet  finished.  An  Oligarchy  seeking  to  maintain  an  outrage 
like  Slavery,  and  drawing  its  inspirations  from  this  fountain  of  wicked 
ness,  is  naturally  base,  false  and  heedless  of  justice.  It  is  vain  to  ex 
pect  that  men  who  have  screwed  themselves  to  become  the  propagan 
dists  of  this  enormity,  will  be  constrained  by  any  compromise,  compact, 
bargain  or  plighted  faith.  As  the  less  is  contained  in  the  greater,  so 


212  THE  MISSOURI   COMPROMISE  ABOLISHED. 

there  is  no  vileness  of  dishonesty,  no  denial  of  human  rights,  that  is 
not  plainly  involved  in  the  support  of  an  enormity  which  begins  by 
changing  man,  created  in  the  image  of  God,  into  a  chattel,  and  sweeps 
little  children  away  to  the  auction-block.  A  power  which  Heaven 
never  gave,  can  be  maintained  only  by  means  which  Heaven  can  never 
sanction.  And  this  conclusion  of  reason  is  confirmed  by  late  experience  ; 
and  here  I  approach  the  special  question  under  which  the  country  now 
shakes  from  side  to  side.  The  protracted  struggle  of  1820,  known  as 
the  Missouri  Question,  ended  with  the  admission  of  Missouri  as  a  slave- 
holding  State,  and  the  prohibition  of  Slavery  in  all  the  remaining  terri 
tory  West  of  the  Mississippi  and  North  of  36°  30'.  Here  was  a 
solemn  act  of  legislation,  called  at  the  time  a  compromise,  a  covenant, 
a  compact,  first  brought  forward  by  the  Slave  Oligarchy — vindicated  by 
it  in  debate — finally  sanctioned  by  its  votes,  also  upheld  at  the  time  by 
a  slave-holding  President,  James  Monroe,  and  his  cabinet — of  whom  a 
majority  were  slaveholders,  including  Mr.  Calhoun  himself — and  made 
the  condition  of  the  admission  of  Missouri — without  which  that  State 
could  not  have  been  received  into  the  Union.  Suddenly,  during  the 
last  year — without  any  notice  in  the  public  press  or  the  prayer  of  a 
single  petition — after  an  acquiescence  of  thirty-three  years,  and  the 
irreclaimable  possession  by  the  Slave  Oligarchy  of  its  special  share  in 
the  provisions  of  this  Compromise — in  violation  of  every  obligation  of 
honor,  compact  and  good  neighborhood — and  in  contemptuous  disre 
gard  of  the  out-gushing  sentiments  of  an  aroused  North,  this  time- 
honored  Prohibition,  in  itself  a  Landmark  of  Freedom,  was  overturned, 
and  the  vast  region,  now  known  as  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  was  opened 
to  Slavery  ;  and  this  was  done  under  the  disgraceful  lead  of  Northern 
politicians,  and  with  the  undisguised  complicity  of  a  Northern  Presi 
dent,  forgetful  of  Freedom,  forgetful  also  of  his  reiterated  pledges,  that 
during  his  administration  the  repose  of  the  country  should  receive  no 
shock. 

And  all  this  was  perpetrated  under  pretences  of  popular  rights. 
Freedom  was  betrayed  by  a  kiss.  In  defiance  of  an  uninterrupted 
prescription  down  to  our  day — early  sustained  at  the  South  as  well  as 
the  North — leaning  at  once  on  Jefferson  and  Washington — sanctioned 
by  all  the  authoritative  names  of  our  history,  and  beginning  with  the 
great  Ordinance  by  which  Slavery  was  prohibited  in  the  North-West — 
it  was  pretended  that  the  people  of  the  United  States,  who  are  the  pro 
prietors  of  the  national  domain,  and  who,  according  to  the  Constitu 
tion,  may  "  make  all  needful  rules  and  regulations  "  for  its  government^ 


OUTRAGES   IN  KANSAS.  213 

i 

nevertheless  were  not  its  sovereigns — that  they  had  no  power  to  inter 
dict  Slavery  there ;  but  that  this  eminent  dominion  resided  in  the  few 
settlers,  called  squatters,  whom  chance,  or  a  desire  to  better  their  for 
tunes,  first  hurried  into  these  places.  To  this  precarious  handful, 
sprinkled  over  immense  spaces,  it  was  left,  without  any  constraint  from 
Congress,  to  decide,  whether  into  these  vast,  unsettled  lands,  as  into 
the  veins  of  an  infant,  should  be  poured  the  festering  poison  of  Slavery, 
destined,  as  time  advances,  to  show  itself  in  cancers  and  leprous 
disease,  or  whether  they  should  be  filled  with  all  the  glowing  life  of 
Freedom.  And  this  great  power,  transferred  from  Congress  to  these 
few  settlers,  was  hailed  by  the  new-fangled  name  of  Squatter  Sov 
ereignty. 

It  was  fit  that  the  original  outrage  perpetrated  under  such  pretences, 
should  be  followed  by  other  outrages  perpetrated  in  defiance  of  these 
pretences.  In  the  race  of  emigration,  the  freedom-loving  freemen  of 
the  North  promised  to  obtain  the  ascendency,  and  in  the  exercise  of 
the  conceded  sovereignty  of  the  settlers,  to  prohibit  Slavery.  The  Slave 
Oligarchy  was  aroused  to  other  efforts.  Of  course  it  stuck  at  nothing. 
On  the  day  of  election  when  this  vaunted  popular  sovereignty  was  first 
invoked,  hirelings  from  Missouri,  having  no  home  in  the  territory,  en 
tered  it  in  bands  of  fifties  and  hundreds,  and  assuming  an  electoral 
franchise  to  which  they  had  no  claim,  trampled  under  foot  the  Consti 
tution  and  laws.  Violently,  ruthlessly,  the  polls  were  possessed  by  these 
invaders.  The  same  Northern  President,  who  did  not  shrink  from  un 
blushing  complicity  in  the  original  outrage,  now  assumed  another  com 
plicity.  Though  prompt  to  lavish  the  Treasury,  the  Army  and  the 
Navy  of  the  Republic  in  hunting  a  single  slave  through  the  streets  of 
Boston,  he  could  see  the  Constitution  and  laws,  which  he  was  sworn  to 
protect,  and  those  popular  rights  which  he  had  affected  to  promote,  all 
struck  down  in  Kansas,  and  then  give  new  scope  to  these  invaders  by 
the  removal  of  the  faithful  Governor, — who  had  become  obnoxious  to 
the  Slave  Oligarchy  because  he  would  not  become  its  tool, — and  the 
substitution  of  another,  who  vindicated  the  dishonest  choice  by  making 
haste,  on  his  first  arrival  there,  to  embrace  the  partisans  of  Slavery. 
The  legislature,  which  was  constituted  by  the  overthrow  of  the  electoral 
franchise,  proceeded  to  overthrow  every  safeguard  of  Freedom.  At  one 
swoop  it  adopted  all  the  legislation  of  Missouri,  including  its  Slave 
Code  ;  by  another  act  it.  imposed  unprecedented  conditions  upon  the 
exercise  of  the  electoral  franchise,  and  by  still  another  act  it  denounced 
foe  punishment  of  death  no  less  than  five  times  against  as  many  different 


214  TO   BUILD   ANOTHER   SLAVE   STATE. 

forms  of  interference  with  the  alleged  property  in  human  flesh,  while  all 
who  only  write  or  speak  against  Slavery  are  adjudged  to  be  felons, 
Yes,  fellow-citizens,  should  any  person  there  presume  to  print  or  circu 
late  the  speech  in  which  I  now  express  my  abhorrence  of  Slavery,  and 
deny  its  constitutional  existence  anywhere  within  the  national  jurisdic 
tion,  he  would  become  liable  under  this  act  as  a  felon.  And  this  over 
throw  of  all  popular  rights  is  done  in  the  name  of  Popular  Sovereignty. 
Surely  its  authors  follow  well  the  example  of  the  earliest  Squatter  Sove 
reign—none  other  than  Satan — who,  stealing  into  Eden,  was  there  dis 
covered,  by  the  celestial  angels,  just  beginning  his  work;  as  Milton 
tells  us, 

" him  there  they  found 

Squat  like  a  toad,  close  at  the  ear  of  Eve." 

Would  you  know  the  secret  of  this  unprecedented  endeavor,  begin 
ning  with  the  repeal  of  the  Prohibition  of  Slavery  down  to  the  latest 
atrocity  ?  The  answer  is  at  hand.  It  is  not  merely  to  provide  new 
markets  for  Slaves,  or  even  to  guard  Slavery  in  Missouri,  but  to  build 
another  Slave  State,  and  thus,  by  the  presence  of  two  additional  slave- 
holding  Senators,  to  give  increased  preponderance  to  the  Slave  Oligar 
chy  in  the  National  Government.  As  men  are  murdered  for  the  sake 
of  their  money,  so  is  this  territory  blasted  in  peace  and  prosperity,  in 
order  to  wrest  its  political  influence  to  the  side  of  Slavery. 

XL. 

But  a  single  usurpation  is  not  enough  to  employ  the  rapacious  ener 
gies  of  our  Oligarchy.  At  this  moment,  while  the  country  is  pained  by 
the  heartless  conspiracy  against  Freedom  in  Kansas,  we  are  startled  by 
another  effort,  which  contemplates,  not  merely  the  political  subjugation 
of  the  National  Government,  but  the  actual  introduction  of  Slavery  into 
the  Free  States.  The  vaunt  has  been  made,  that  slaves  will  yet  be 
counted  in  the  secret  shadow  of  the  monument  on  Bunker  Hill,  and 
more  than  one  step  has  been  taken  towards  this  effrontery.  A  person 
of  Virginia  has  asserted  his  right  to  hold  slaves  in  New  York  on  the 
way  to  Texas  ;  and  this  claim  is  still  pending  before  the  highest  judicial 
tribunal  of  the  land.  A  similar  claim  has  been  asserted  in  Pennsyl 
vania,  and  thus  far  been  sustained  by  the  court.  A  blameless  citizen, 
who — in  obedience  to  his  generous  impulses  and  in  harmony  with  the 
received  law — merely  gave  notice  to  a  person  held  as  a  slave  in  a  Free 


PROSTRATION   OF  THE   SLAVE   OLIGARCHY.  215 

State,  that  she  was  in  reality  free,  has  been  thrust  into  jail,  and  now, 
after  the  lapse  of  months,  still  languishes  there,  the  victim  of  this  pre 
tension  ;  while, — that  no  excess  might  be  wanting  in  the  madness  of  this 
tyranny — the  great  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus,  proudly  known  as  the  writ 
of  deliverance,  has  been  made  the  instrument  of  his  imprisonment. 
Outrage  treads  upon  outrage,  and  great  rights  pass  away  to  perish. 
Alas!  the  needful  tool  for  such  work  is  too  easily  found  in  places  low 
and  high — in  the  alleys  and  cellars  of  Boston — on  the  bench  of  the  judge 
— in  the  chair  of  the  President.  But  it  is  the  power  behind  which  I 
arraign.  The  Slave  Oligarchy  does  it ;  the  Slave  Oligarchy  does  it  all. 
To  the  prostration  of  this  Oligarchy  you  are  bound  by  a  three-fold 
cord  of  duty ;  first,  as  you  would  secure  Freedom  for  yourselves  ; 
secondly,  as  you  would  uphold  Freedom  in  distant  Kansas  ;  and  thirdly, 
as  you  would  preserve  the  Union  in  its  early  strength  and  integrity. 
The  people  of  Kansas  are,  many  of  them,  from  Massachusetts — bone 
of  our  bone,  flesh  of  our  flesh  ;  but  as  fellow-citizens  under  the  Con 
stitution,  they  are  bound  to  us  by  ties  which  we  cannot  disown.  Nay, 
more  ;  by  the  subtle  cord  which  connects  this  embryo  settlement  with 
the  Republic,  they  are  made  a  part  of  us.  The  outrage  which  touches 
them  touches  us.  What  galls  them  galls  us.  The  fetter  which  binds 
the  slave  in  Kansas  binds  every  citizen  in  Massachusetts.  Thus  are 
we  prompted  to  their  rescue,  not  only  to  save  them,  but  also  to  save 
ourselves.  The  tyranny  which  now  treads  them  down,  has  already 
trampled  on  us,  and  only  awaits  an  opportunity  to  do  it  again.  In  its 
complete  overthrow  is  the  only  way  of  safety.  Indeed,  this  must  be 
done  before  anything  else  can  be  done.  In  vain  you  seek  economy  in 
the  Government — improvement  of  rivers  and  harbors — or  dignity  and 
peace  in  our  foreign  relations,  while  this  power  holds  the  national  purse 
and  the  national  sword.  Prostrate  the  Slave  Oligarchy,  and  the  door 
will  be  wide  open  for  all  generous  reforms.  Oh !  the  imagination  loses 
itself  in  the  vain  endeavor  to  picture  the  good  that  will  be  then  accom 
plished.  Prostrate  the  Slave  Oligarchy,  and  Liberty  will  become  the 
universal  law  of  all  the  national  territories  ;  Slavery  will  cease  at  once 
in  the  national  capital ;  the  slave  trade  will  no  longer  skulk  along  our 
coasts  beneath  the  national  flag ;  and  the  wickedness  of  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill  will  be  driven  from  the  statute-book.  Prostrate  the  Slave 
Oligarchy,  and  the  national  Government  will  be  at  length  divorced  from 
Slavery,  and  the  national  policy  will  be  changed  from  Slavery  to  Free 
dom.  Prostrate  the  Slave  Oligarchy,  and  the  North  will  no  longer  be 
the  vassal  of  the  South.  Prostrate  the  Slave  Oligarchy,  and  the  North 


2l6  WEDDED   TO   FREEDOM. 

will  be  admitted  to  its  just  share  in  the  trusts  and  honors  of  the  Repub 
lic.  Prostrate  the  Slave  Oligarchy,  and  you  will  possess  the  master-key 
with  which  to  unlock  the  whole  house  of  bondage.  Prostrate  the  Slave 
Oligarchy,  and  the  gates  of  emancipation  will  be  open  at  the  South. 

To  this  work,  fellow-citizens,  you  are  now  summoned.  By  yoiu 
votes  you  are  to  declare,  not  merely  your  predilection  for  men,  but 
your  devotion  to  principles.  Men  are  erring  and  mortal.  Principles 
are  steadfast  and  immortal.  Forgetting  all  other  things — especially 
forgetting  men — you  are  to  cast  your  votes  so  as  best  to  promote  Free 
dom. 

But  in  the  choice  of  men  we  are  driven  to  the  organization  of  parties  ; 
and  here  occurs  the  practical  question  on  which  hinges  our  immediate 
duty,  by  what  political  party  can  our  desire  be  accomplished  ?  There 
are  individuals  in  all  the  parties,  even  the  Democratic,  who  hate  Slavery, 
and  say  so  ;  but  a  political  party  cannot  be  judged  by  the  private  opin 
ions  of  some  of  its  members.  Something  else,  more  solid  and  tangible, 
must  appear.  The  party  that  we  select  to  bear  the  burden  and  honor 
of  our  great  controversy,  must  be  adapted  to  the  work.  It  must  be  a 
perfect  machine.  Wedded  to  Freedom,  for  better  or  for  worse,  and 
cleaving  to  it  with  a  grasp  never  to  be  unloosed,  it  must  be  clear,  open 
and  unequivocal  in  its  declarations,  and  must  admit  no  other  question  to 
divert  its  energies.  It  must  be  all  in  Freedom,  and,  like  Caesar's  wife, 
it  must  be  above  suspicion.  But  besides  this  character  which  it  must 
sustain  in  Massachusetts,  it  must  be  prepared  to  take  its  place  in  close 
phalanx  with  the  united  masses  of  the  North,  now  organizing  through 
all  the  Free  States,  junctazque  umbone  phalanges,  for  the  protection  of 
Freedom,  and  the  overthrow  of  the  Slave  Oligarchy. 

Bearing  these  conditions  in  mind,  there  are  three  parties  which  we 
may  dismiss,  one  by  one,  as  they  pass  in  review.  Men  do  not  gather 
grapes  from  thorns,  nor  figs  from  thistles  ;  nor  do  they  expect  patriotism 
from  Benedict  Arnold.  A  party  which  sustains  the  tyrannies  and  per 
fidies  of  the  Slave  Oligarchy,  and  is  represented  by  the  President, 
through  whom  has  come  so  much  of  all  our  woe,  need  not  occupy  our 
time  ;  and  such  is  the  Democratic  party.  If  there  be  within  the  sound 
of  my  voice  a  single  person,  who,  professing  sympathy  with  Freedom, 
still  votes  with  this  party,  to  him  I  would  say  :  The  name  of  Democrat 
is  a  tower  of  strength  ;  let  it  not  be  a  bulwark  of  Slavery;  for  the  sake 
of  a  name  do  not  sacrifice  a  thing  ;  for  the  sake  of  party  do  not  sur 
render  Freedom. 

According  to  a  familiar  rule,  handed  down  from  distant  antiquity,  we 


THE   RIP  VAN   WINKLE  WHIGS.  2 1/ 

are  to  say  nothing  but  good  of  the  dead.  How,  then,  shall  I  speak  of 
the  late  powerful  Whig  party — by  whose  giant  contests  the  whole  country 
was  once  upheaved — but  which  has  now  ceased  to  exist,  except  as  the 
shadow  of  a  name  ?  Here,  in  Massachusetts,  a  few  who  do  not  yet 
know  that  it  is  dead,  have  met  together  and  proffered  their  old  allegiance. 
They  are  the  Rip  Van  Winkles  of  our  politics.  This  respectable  char 
ter,  falling  asleep  in  the  mountains,  drowsed  undisturbed  throughout  the 
whole  war  of  the  Revolution,  and,  then  returning  to  his  native  village, 
ignorant  of  all  that  had  passed,  proposed  to  drink  the  health  of  King 
George.  But  our  Whigs  are  less  tolerant  and  urbane  than  this  awakened 
Dutchman.  In  petulant  and  irrational  assumptions  they  are  like  the 
unfortunate  judge,  who,  being  aroused  from  his  slumbers  on  the  bench 
by  a  sudden  crash  of  thunder,  exclaimed,  "  Mr.  Crier,  stop  the  noise  in 
Court."  The  thunder  would  not  be  hushed  ;  nor  will  the  voice  of  Free 
dom,  now  reverberating  throughout  the  land.  Some  there  are  among 
these  who  openly  espouse  the  part  of  Slavery,  while  others,  by  their 
indifference,  place  themselves  in  the  same  unhappy  company.  If  their 
position  at  this  moment  were  of  sufficient  importance  to  justify  grave 
remark,  they  should  be  exhibited  as  kindred  in  spirit  and  isolation  to  the 
Tories  of  our  Revolution,  or,  at  least,  as  the  Bourbons  of  Massachu 
setts — always  claiming  everything,  learning  nothing,  forgetting  nothing, 
and  at  last  condemned  by  an  aroused  people  for  their  disloyalty  to 
Freedom.  Let  no  person  who  truly  loves  Freedom  join  this  company, 
tempted  by  its  name,  its  music,  and  its  banners. 

There  is  still  another  party,  which  claims  your  votes,  but  permit  me 
to  say,  at  this  crisis,  with  small  pretence.  I  am  at  a  loss  to  determine 
the  name  by  which  it  may  be  properly  called.  It  is  sometimes  known 
as  the  Know-Nothing  party  ;  sometimes  as  the  American  party  ;  but  it 
cannot  be  entitled  to  these  designations — if  they  be  of  any  value — for  it 
does  not  claim  to  belong  to  the  organization,  which  first  assumed  and 
still  retains  them.  It  is  an  isolated  combination,  peculiar  to  Massachu 
setts,  which,  while  professing  certain  political  sentiments,  is  bound 
together  by  the  support  of  one  of  the  candidates  for  Governor.  At  this 
moment  this  is  its  controlling  idea.  It  is,  therefore,  a  personal  party, 
and  I  trust  that  I  shall  not  be  considered  as  departing  from  that  courtesy 
which  is  with  me  a  law,  if  I  say  that,  in  the  absence  of  any  appropriate 
name,  expressive  of  principles,  it  may  properly  take  its  designation 
from  the  candidate  it  supports. 

Of  course,  such  a  party  wants  the  first  ess'ential  condition  of  the  or 
ganization  which  we  seek.  It  is  a  personal party,  whose  controlling  ide?i 


2l8        THE  GREAT  PHALANX  NOW  RALLYING. 

is  a  predilection  for  a  man  and  not  a  principle.  Whatever  may  be  the 
private  sentiments  of  some  of  its  members,  clearly  it  is  not  a  party 
wedded  to  Freedom,  for  better  and  for  worse,  and  cleaving  to  it  with  a 
grasp  never  to  be  unloosed.  While  professing  opposition  to  Slavery  it 
also  arraigns  Catholics  and  foreigners,  and  allows  the  question  of  their 
privileges  to  disturb  its  energies.  It  is  not  all  in  Freedom  ;  nor  is  it, 
like  Ciesar's  wife,  above  suspicion.  Besides,  even  as  a  party  of  Free 
dom,  it  is  powerless  from  its  isolation  ;  *br  it  stands  by  itself,  and  is  in 
no  way  associated  with  that  great  phalanx  now  rallying  throughout  the 
North.  In  this  condition  should  it  continue  to  exist,  it  will,  in  the 
coming  Presidential  contest,  from  natural  affinity  lapse  back  into  the 
American  party  of  the  country  which  is  ranged  on  the  side  of  Slavery. 
Of  course,  as  a  separate  party,  it  is  necessarily  short-lived.  Cut  off 
from  the  main  body,  it  may  still  show  a  brief  vitality,  as  the  head  of  a 
turtle  still  bites  for  some  days  after  it  is  severed  from  the  neck :  but  it 
can  have  no  permanent  existence.  Surely  this  is  not  the  party  of 
Freedom  which  we  seek. 

But  the  incompetency  of  this  party,  as  the  organ  of  our  cause,  is 
enhanced  by  the  uncongenial  secrecy  in  which  it  had  its  origin  and  yet 
shrouds  itself.  For  myself,  let  me  say  that,  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate  I 
have  striven,  by  vote  and  speech,  in  conjunction  with  my  distinguished 
friend  Mr.  CHASE,  for  the  limitation  of  the  secret  sessions  of  that  body, 
under  shelter  of  which  so  much  of  the  business  of  the  nation  is  trans 
acted,  and  I  have  there  presented  the  example  of  that  ancient  Roman, 
— who  bade  his  architect  so  to  construct  his  house  that  his  guests  and 
all  that  they  did  might  be  seen  by  the  world, — as  a  fit  model  for  Ameri 
can  institutions.  What  I  have  urged  there  I  now  urge  here.  But  the 
special  aims  which  this  party  proposes,  seems  to  be  in  harmony  with 
the  darkness  in  which  it  begins.  Even  if  justifiable,  on  any  grounds  of 
public  policy,  they  should  not  be  associated  with  our  cause  ;  but  I  am 
unwilling  to  allude  to  them  without  expressing  my  frank  dissent. 


XLI. 

It  is  proposed  to  attaint  men  for  their  religion  and  also  for  their  birth. 
If  this  object  can  prevail,  vain  are  the  triumphs  of  Civil  Freedom  in  its 
many  hard-fought  fields ;  vain  is  that  religious  toleration  which  we  all 
profess.  The  fires  of  Smithfield,  the  tortures  of  the  Inquisition,  the 
proscriptions  of  non-conformists,  may  all  be  revived.  It  was  mainly 


NO   CHECK   ON   EMIGRATION.  219 

to  escape  these  outrages,  dictated  by  a  dominant  religious  sect,  that  our 
country  was  early  settled,  in  one  place  by  Quakers,  who  set  at  naught 
all  forms  ;  in  another,  by  Puritans,  who  disowne'd  bishops  ;  in  another, 
by  Episcopalians,  who  take  their  name  from  bishops  ;  and  in  yet  another 
by  Catholics,  who  look  to  the  Pope  as  their  Spiritual  Father.  Slowly 
among  the  struggling  sects  was  evolved  the  great  idea  of  the  Equality 
of  all  men  before  the  law  without  regard  to  religious  belief ;  nor  can 
any  party  now  organize  a  proscription  merely  for  religious  belief,  with 
out  calling  in  question  this  unquestionable  principle. 

But  Catholics  are  mostly  foreigners,  and,  on  this  account,  are  con 
demned.  Let  us  see  if  there  be  any  reason  in  this ;  and  here  indulge 
me  with  one  word  on  foreigners. 

With  the  ancient  Greeks,  a  foreigner  was  a  barbarian,  and  with  the 
ancient  Romans,  he  was  an  enemy.  In  early  modern  times,  the  au 
sterity  of  this  judgment  was  relaxed  ;  but,  under  the  influence  of  feudal 
ism,  the  different  sovereignties,  whether  provinces  or  nations,  were  kept 
in  a  condition  of  isolation,  from  which  they  have  been  gradually  passing 
until  now,  when  provinces  are  merged  into  nations,  and  nations  are 
giving  signs  that  they  too  will'yet  commingle  into  one.  In  our  country 
another  example  is  already  displayed.  From  all  nations  people  com 
mingle  here.  As  in  ancient  Corinth,  by  the  accidental  fusion  of  all 
metals  accumulated  in  the  sacred  temples,  a  peculiar  metal  was  pro 
duced,  better  than  any  individual  metal,  even  silver  or  gold  ;  so,  perhaps, 
in  the  arrangements  of  Providence,  by  the  fusion  of  all  races  here, 
there  may  be  a  better  race  than  any  individual  race,  even  Saxon  or  Celt. 
Originally  settled  from  England,  the  Republic  has  been  strengthened 
and  enriched  by  generous  contributions  of  population  from  Scotland, 
Ireland,  Switzerland,  Sweden,  France  and  Germany  ;  and  the  cry  is  still 
they  come.  At  no  time  since  the  discovery  of  the  New  World  has  the 
army  of  emigrants  pressed  so  strongly  in  this  direction.  Nearly  half  a 
million  are  annually  landed  on  our  shores.  The  manner  in  which  they 
shall  be  received  is  one  of  the  problems  of  our  national  policy. 

All  will  admit  that  any  influence  which  they  may  bring,  hostile  to  our 
institutions — calculated  to  substitute  priestcraft  for  religion  and  bigotry 
for  Christianity — must  be  deprecated  and  opposed.  All  will  admit,  too, 
that  there  must  be  some  assurance  of  their  purpose  to  become  not 
merely  consumers  of  the  fruits  of  our  soil,  but  useful,  loyal  and  perma 
nent  members  of  our  community,  upholders  of  the  general  welfare. 
WTith  this  simple  explanation,  I  am  not  disposed  to  place  any  check 
upon  the  welcome  to  foreigners.  There  are  our  broad  lands,  stretching 


220  WHAT  FOREIGNERS   HAVE  DONE  FOR   US. 

towards  the  setting  sun  ;  let  them  come  and  take  them.  Ourselves  the 
children  of  the  Pilgrims  of  a  former  generation,  let  us  not  turn  from 
the  Pilgrims  of  the  present.  Let  the  home,  founded  by  our  emigrant 
fathers,  continue  open  in  its  many  mansions  to  the  emigrants  of  to-day. 

The  history  of  our  country,  in  its  humblest  as  well  as  most  exalted 
spheres,  testifies  to  the  merits  of  foreigners.  Their  strong  arms  have 
helped  furrow  our  broad  territory  with  canals,  and  stretch  in  every  direc 
tion  the  iron  rail.  They  have  filled  our  workshops,  navigated  our  ships, 
and  even  tilled  our  fields.  Go  where  you  will,  among  the  hardy  sons 
of  toil  on  land  or  sea,  and  there  you  will  find  industrious  and  faithful 
foreigners  bending  their  muscles  to  the  work.  At  the  bar  and  in  the 
high  places  of  commerce,  you  will  find  them.  Enter  the  retreats  of 
learning,  and  there  you  will  find  them  too,  shedding  upon  our  country 
the  glory  of  science.  Nor  can  any  reflection  be  cast  upon  foreigners, 
claiming  hospitality  now,  which  will  not  glance  at  once  upon  the  distin 
guished  living  and  the  illustrious  dead— upon  the  Irish  Montgomery, 
who  perished  for  us  at  the  gates  of  Quebec — upon  Pulaski  the  Pole, 
who  perished  for  us  at  Savannah — upon  De  Kalb  and  Steuben,  the  gen 
erous  Germans,  who  aided  our  weakness  by  their  military  experience — 
upon  Paul  Jones,  the  Scotchman,  who  lent  his  unsurpassed  courage  to 
the  infant  thunders  of  our  navy — also  upon  those  great  European 
liberators,  Kosciusko  of  Poland,  and  Lafayette  of  Erance,  each  of  whom 
paid  his  earliest  vows  to  Liberty  in  our  cause.  Nor  should  this  list  be 
confined  to  military  characters,  so  long  as  we  gratefully  cherish  the 
name  of  Alexander  Hamilton,  who  was  born  in  the  West  Indies, 
and  the  name  of  Albert  Gallatin,  who  was  born  in  Switzerland, 
and  never,  to  the  close  of  his  octogenarian  career,  lost  the  French  ac 
cent  of  his  boyhood — both  of  whom  rendered  civic  services  which  may 
be  commemorated  among  the  victories  of  peace. 

Nor  is  the  experience  of  our  Republic  peculiar.  Where  is  the 
country  or  power  which  must  not  inscribe  the  names  of  foreigners  on 
its  historic  scroll  ?  It  was  Christopher  Columbus,  of  Genoa,  who  dis 
closed  to  Spain  the  New  World  ;  it  was  Magellan,  of  Portugal,  sailing 
in  the  service  of  Spain,  who  first  pressed  with  adventurous  keel  through 
those  distant  Southern  straits  which  now  bear  his  name,  and  opened  the 
way  to  the  vast  Pacific  sea;  and  it  was  Cabot,  the  Venetian,  who  first 
conducted  English  enterprise  to  this  North  American  continent.  As  in 
the  triumphs  of  discovery,  so,  also,  in  other  fields  have  foreigners  ex 
celled,  while  serving  States  to  which  they  were  bound  by  no  tie  of  birth. 
The  Dutch  Grotius — author  of  the  sublime  work,  "  The  Laws  of  Peace 


FRANKLIN   THE   APOSTLE   OF   FREEDOM.  221 

and  War" — an  exile  from  his  own  country — became  the  Ambassador  of 
Sweden,  and,  in  our  own  day,  the  Italian  Pozzo  di  Borgo,  turning  his 
back  upon  his  own  country,  has  reached  the  most  exalted  diplomatic 
trusts  in  the  jealous  service  of  Russia.  In  the  list  of  monarchs  on  the 
throne  of  England,  not  one  has  been  more  truly  English  than  the  Dutch 
William.  In  Holland,  no  ruler  has  equalled  in  renown  the  German 
William,  Prince  of  Orange.  In  Russia,  the  German  Catharine  II.  takes 
a  place  among  the  most  commanding  sovereigns.  And  who  of  the 
Swedish  monarchs  was  a  better  Swede  than  Bernadotte,  the  French 
man  ;  and  what  Frenchman  was  ever  filled  with  aspirations  for  France 
more  than  the  Italian  Napoleon  Bonaparte  ? 

But  I  pass  from  these  things,  which  have  occupied  me  too  long.  A 
party  which,  beginning  in  secrecy,  interferes  with  religious  belief,  and 
founds  a  discrimination  on  the  accident  of  birth,  is  not  the  party  for 
us. 


XLII. 

It  was  the  sentiment  of  that  great  Apostle  of  Freedom,  Benjamin 
Franklin,  uttered  during  the  trials  of  the  Revolution,  that,  "Where 
Liberty  is,  there  is  my  country."  In  similar  strain,  I  would  say,  "  Where 
Liberty  is,  there  is  my  party."  Such  an  organization  is  now  happily 
constituted  here  in  Massachusetts,  and  in  all  the  Free  States,  under  the 
name  of  the  REPUBLICAN  PARTY. 

In  assuming  our  place  as  a  distinct  party,  we  simply  give  form  and 
direction,  in  harmony  with  the  usage  and  genius  of  popular  govern 
ments,  to  a  movement  which  stirs  the  whole  country,  and  does  not  find 
an  adequate  and  constant  organ  in  either  of  the  other  existing  parties. 
The  early  opposition  to  Slavery  was  simply  a  sentiment,  out-gushing 
from  the  hearts  of  the  sensitive  and  humane.  In  the  lapse  of  time  it 
became  a  determined  principle,  inspiring  larger  numbers,  and  showing 
itself  first  in  an  organized  endeavor  to  resist  the  annexation  of  slave- 
holding  Texas  ;  next,  to  prohibit  Slavery  in  newly  acquired  territories  : 
and  now,  alarmed  by  the  overthrow  of  all  rights  in  Kansas,  and  the 
domination  of  the  Slave  Oligarchy  throughout  the  Republic,  it  breaks 
forth  in  a  stronger  effort,  a  wider  union,  and  a  deeper  channel  inspiring 
yet  larger  numbers  and  firmer  resolves,  while  opposite  quarters  con 
tribute  to  its  power — even  as  the  fountain,  first  out-gushing  from  the 
weeping  sides  of  its  pure  mountain  home,  trickles  in  the  rill,  leaps  in  the 


222  PRINCIPLES   OF  THE   NEW   PARTY. 

torrent,  and  flows  in  the  river,  till  at  last,  swollen  with  accumulated 
waters,  it  presses  onward,  forever  onward,  in  irresistible  beneficent 
current,  fertilizing  and  uniting  the  spaces  which  it  traverses,  washing  the 
feet  of  cities,  and  wooing  states  to  repose  upon  its  banks. 

Our  party  has  its  origin  in  the  exigencies  of  the  hour.  Vowing  our 
selves  against  Slavery  wherever  it  exists,  whether  enforced  by  the  Rus 
sian  knout,  the  Turkish  bastinado,  or  the  lash  of  the  Carolina  planter, 
we  do  not  seek  to  interfere  with  it  at  Petersburg,  Constantinople,  or 
Charleston  ;  nor  does  any  such  grave  duty  rest  upon  us.  Our  political 
duties  are  properly  limited  by  our  political  responsibilities  ;  and  we  are 
in  no  just  sense  responsible  for  the  local  law  or  usage  by  which  human 
bondage  in  these  places  is  upheld.  But  wherever  we  are  responsible  for 
the^  wrong,  there  our  duty  begins.  The  object  to  which,  as  a  party,  we  are 
pledged,  is  all  contained  in  the  acceptance  of  the  issue  which  the  Slave 
Oligarchy  tenders.  To  its  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  and  its 
imperious  demand  that  Kansas  shall  be  surrendered  to  Slavery,  we 
reply,  that  Freedom  shall  be  made  the  universal  law  of  all  the  national 
domain,  without  compromise,  and  that  hereafter  no  Slave  State  shall  be 
admitted  into  the  Union.  To  its  tyrannical  assumption  of  supremacy 
in  the  National  Government,  we  reply  that  the  Slave  Oligarchy  shall  be 
overthrown.  Such  is  the  practical  purpose  of  the  Republican  Party. 

It  is  to  uphold  and  advance  this  cause,  that  we  have  come  together, 
leaving  the  parties  to  which  we  have  been  respectively  attached.  Now, 
in  the  course  of  human  events,  it  becomes  our  duty  to  dissolve  the 
political  bands  which  bound  us  to  the  old  organizations,  and  to  assume 
a  separate  existence.  Our  Declaration  of  Independence  has  been 
made.  Let  us,  in  the  spirit  of  our  Fathers,  pledge  ourselves  to  sustain 
it  with  our  lives,  our  fortunes,  and  our  sacred  honor.  In  thus  asso-  .«• 
dating  and  harmonizing  from  opposite  quarters,  in  order  to  promote  a 
common  cause,  we  have  learned  to  forget  former  differences,  and  to 
appreciate  the  motives  of  each  other.  We  have  learned  how  trivial  are 
the  matters  on  which  we  may  disagree,  compared  with  the  Great  Issue 
on  which  we  all  agree.  Old  prejudices  have  vanished.  Even  the  ran 
cors  of  political  antagonism  have  been  changed  and  dissolved,  as  in  a 
potent  alembic,  by  the  natural  irresistible  affinities  of  Freedom.  In 
our  union  we  have  ceased  to  wear  the  badges  of  either  of  the  old  or 
ganizations.  We  have  become  a  new  party,  distinct,  independent,  per 
manent,  under  a  new  name,  with  Liberty  as  our  watchword,  and  our 
flag  inscribed,  "  By  this  sign  conquer." 

Again,  it  is  objected  that  the  Republican  party  is  against  the  Union, 


ADAMS— OTIS — PATRICK   HENRY.  22$ 

and  we  are  reminded  of  the  priceless  blessings  which  come  from  this 
fountain.  Here  is  another  bugbear.  With  us  the  Union  is  not  the  ob 
ject  of  mere  lip  service,  but  it  is  cherished  in  simple  sincerity,  as  the 
aged  Lear  was  loved  by  his  only  faithful  daughter,  "  according  to  her 
bond,  no  more  nor  less."  Our  party  does  nothing  against  the  Union, 
but  everything  for  it.  It  strives  to  guard  those  great  principles  which 
the  Union  was  established  to  secure,  and  thus  to  keep  it  ever  worthy  of 
our  love.  It  seeks  to  overthrow  that  baleful  Oligarchy,  under  which 
the  Union  has  been  changed  from  a  vessel  of  honor  to  a  vessel  of  dis 
honor.  In  this  patriot  work  it  will  persevere,  regardless  of  menace 
from  any  quarter.  Not  that  I  love  the  Union  less  but  Freedom  more, 
do  I  now,  in  pleading  this  great  cause,  insist  that  Freedom,  at  all 
hazards,  shall  be  preserved.  God  forbid,  that  for  the  sake  of  the 
Union,  we  should  sacrifice  the  very  things  for  which  the  Union  was 
made. 

And  yet  again,  it  is  objected  that  ours  is  a  party  of  a  single  idea. 
This  is  a  phrase,  and  nothing  more.  The  party  may  not  recognize  cer 
tain  measures  of  public  policy,  deemed  by  some  of  special  importance  ; 
but  it  does  what  is  better,  and  what  other  parties  fail  to  do.  It  ac 
knowledges  that  beneficent  principle,  which,  like  the  great  central 
light,  vivifies  all,  and  without  which  all  is  dark  and  sterile.  The  mov 
ing  cause  and  the  animating  soul  of  our  party,  is  the  idea  of  Freedom. 
But  this  idea  is  manifold  in  character  and  influence.  It  is  the  idea  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence.  It  is  the  great  idea  of  the  founders 
of  the  Republic.  It  is  the  idea  which  combined  our  Fathers  on  the 
heights  of  Bunker  Hill  ;  which  carried  Washington  through  a  seven 
years'  war  ;  which  inspired  Lafayette  ;  which  touched  with  coals  of  fire 
the  lips  of  Adams,  Otis,  and  Patrick  Henry.  Ours  is  an  idea,  which  is 
at  least  noble  and  elevating  ;  it  is  an  idea  which  draws  in  its  train  vir 
tue,  goodness,  and  all  the  charities  of  life,  all  that  makes  earth  a  home 
of  improvement  and  happiness — 

*'  Her  track,  where'er  the  goddess  roves, 
Glory  pursues,  and  generous  shame, 
The  unconquerable  mind  and  Freedom's  holy  flame." 

Thus  do  all  objections  disappear,  even  as  the  mists  of  morning  be* 
fore  the  sun,  rejoicing  like  a  strong  man  to  run  his  race.  The  Repub 
lican  party  stands  vindicated  in  every  particular.  It  only  remains  that 
I  should  press  the  question  with  which  I  began — "  Are  you  for  Free 
dom,  or  are  you  for  Slavery  ? "  As  it  is  right  to  be  taught  by  the 


224         CORNERS-TONE  OF  THE  NEW  PARTY. 

enemy,  let  us  derive  instruction  from  the  Oligarchy  we  oppose.  The 
three  hundred  and  forty-seven  thousand  slave-masters  are  always 
united.  Hence  their  strength.  Like  arrows  in  a  quiver,  they  cannot 
be  broken.  The  friends  of  Freedom  have  thus  far  been  divided. 
They,  too,  must  be  united.  In  the  crisis  before  us,  it  becomes  you  all 
to  forget  ancient  feuds,  and  those  names  which  have  been  the  signal  of 
strife.  There  is  no  occasion  to  remember  anything  but  our  duties. 
When  the  fire-bell  rings  at  midnight,  we  do  not  ask  if  it  be  Whigs  or 
Democrats,  Protestants  or  Catholics,  natives  or  foreigners,  who  join 
our  efforts  to  extinguish  the  flames ;  nor  do  we  ask  any  such  question 
in  selecting  our  leader  then.  Men  of  all  parties,  Whigs  and  Democrats, 
or  however  named,  let  me  call  upon  you  to  come  forward  and  join  in  a 
common  cause.  Do  not  hesitate.  When  Freedom  is  in  danger,  all 
who  are  not  for  her  are  against  her.  The  penalty  of  indifference,  in 
such  a  cause,  is  akin  to  the  penalty  of  opposition ;  as  is  well  pictured 
by  the  great  Italian  poet,  when,  among  the  saddest  on  the  banks  of 
Acheron — rending  the  air  with  outcries  of  torment,  shrieks  of  anger. 
and  smiting  of  hands — he  finds  the  troop  of  dreary  souls  who  had  been 
ciphers  only  in  the  great  conflicts  of  life  : 

"  Mingled  with  whom,  of  their  disgrace  the  proof, 
Are  the  vile  angels  who  did  not  rebel, 
Nor  kept  their  faith  to  God,  but  stood  aloof "." 

Come  forth,  then,  from  the  old  organizations ;  let  us  range  together. 
Come  forth,  all  who  have  stood  aloof  from  parties ;  here  is  an  oppor 
tunity  for  action.  You  who  place  principles  above  men  !  come  for 
ward.  All  who  feel  in  any  way  the  wrong  of  Slavery,  take  your  stand  ! 
Join  us,  ye  lovers  of  Truth,  of  Justice,  of  Humanity  !  And  let  me 
call  especially  upon  the  young.  You  are  the  natural  guardians  of 
liberty.  In  your  firm  resolves  and  generous  souls  she  will  find  her 
surest  protection.  The  young  man  who  is  not  willing  to  serve  in 
her  cause — to  suffer,  if  need  be,  for  her — gives  little  promise  of  those 
qualities  which  secure  an  honorable  age. 

FELLOW-CITIZENS  :  We  found  now  a  new  party.  Its  corner-stone  is 
Freedom.  Its  broad,  all-sustaining  arches  are  Truth,  Justice,  and  Hu 
manity.  Like  the  ancient  Roman  Capitol,  at  once  a  Temple  and  a 
Citadel,  it  shall  be  the  fit  shrine  for  the  genius  of  American  Institutions. 


REPEAL   OF   FUGITIVE   SLAVE   ACT   ASKED.  225 

XLIII. 

The  battle  between  Slavery  and  Freedom  had  been 
waxing  hotter  with  every  debate  during  the  spring  of 
1854.  On  the  22cl  of  June,  Mr.  Rockwell,  of  Massachu 
setts,  presented  the  following  memorial,  numerously 
signed,  chiefly  by  the  citizens  of  Boston,  and  moved  its 
reference  to  the  Committee  on  the  Judiciary  : 

"To  the  Honorable  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  in 
Congress  assembled  :  The  undersigned,  men  of  Massachusetts,  ask  for 
the  repeal  of  the  Act  of  Congress  of  1850,  known  as  the  FUGITIVE 
SLAVE  BILL." 

Mr.  Sumner  spoke  on  the  reference  of  the  memorial 
two  days  later.  We  extract  portions  of  his  remarks  : 

MR.  PRESIDENT  :  I  begin  by  answering  the  interrogatory  propounded 
by  the  Senator  from  Tennessee  [Mr.  Jones].  He  asks,  "Can  any  one 
suppose  that,  if  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act  be  repealed,  this  Union  can  ex 
ist  ?"  To  which  I  reply  at  once,  that  if  the  Union  be  in  any  way  de 
pendent  on  an  Act — I  cannot  call  it  a  law — so  revolting  in  every  regard 
as  that  to  which  he  refers,  then  it  ought  not  to  exist.  To  much  else 
that  has  fallen  from  that  Senator  I  do  not  desire  to  reply.  He  has  dis 
cussed  at  length  matters  already  handled  again  and  again  in  the  long 
drawn  out  debates  of  this  session.  Like  the  excited  hero  of  Macedo 
nia,  he  has  renewed  past  conflicts, 

"  And  thrice  he  routed  all  his  foes, 
And  thrice  he  slew  the  slain." 

Of  what  the  Senator  has  said  on  the  relations  of  Senators,  North  and 
South,  of  a  particular  party,  it  is  not  my  province  to  speak.  And  yet  I 
cannot  turn  from  it  without  expressing,  at  least,  a  single  aspiration,  that 
men  from  the  North,  whether  Whigs  or  Democrats,  will  neither  be  cajoled 
nor  driven  by  any  temptation,  or  lash,  from  the  support  of  those  princi 
ples  of  freedom  which  are  inseparable  from  the  true  honor  and  welfare  of 
the  country.  At  last,  I  trust,  there  will  be  a  back-bone  in  the  North. 

This  memorial  proceeds  mainly  from  persons  connected  with  trade 
and  commerce.  Now,  it  is  a  fact  too  well  known  in  the  history,  of 
England,  and  of  our  own  country,  that  these  persons,  while  often  justly 
distinguished  by  their  individual  charities  and  munificence,  have  been 
lukewarm  in  their  opposition  to  Slavery.  Twice  in  English  history  the 


226  SUMNER   ENFORCES  THE   PETITION. 

"  mercantile  interest"  frowned  upon  the  endeavors  to  suppress  the  atro 
city  of  Algerine  Slavery ;  steadfastly  in  England  it  sought  to  baffle 
Wilberforce's  great  effort  for  the  abolition  of  the  African  Slave-trade  : 
and,  at  the  formation  of  our  own  Constitution,  it  stipulated  a' sordid  com 
promise,  by  which  this  same  detested,  Heaven-defying  traffic,  was  saved 
for  twenty  years  from  American  judgment.  But  now  it  is  all  changed — 
at  least  in  Boston.  The  representatives  of  the  "mercantile  interest" 
place  themselves  in  the  front  of  the  now  movement  against  Slavery, 
and,  by  their  explicit  memorial,  call  for  the  abatement  of  a  grievance 
which  they  have  bitterly  felt  in  Boston. 

Mr.  President,  this  memorial  is  interesting  to  me,  first,  as  it  asks  a 
repeal  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  and  secondly,  as  it  comes  from  Mas 
sachusetts.  That  repeal  I  shall  be  glad  at  any  time,  now  and  hereafter, 
as  in  times  past,  to  sustain  by  vote  and  argument;  and  I  trust  never  to 
fail  in  any  just  regard  for  the  sentiments  or  interests  of  Massachusetts. 
With  these  few  remarks,  I  would  gladly  close.  But  there  has  been  an 
.arraignment  here  to-day,  both  of  myself  and  of  the  Commonwealth 
which  I  represent.  To  all  that  has  been  said  of  myself  or  the  Com- 
rnaonwealth — so  far  as  it  is  an  impeachment  of  either — so  far  as  it  sub 
jects  either  to  any  just  censure,  I  plead  openly,  for  myself  and  for  Mas 
sachusetts,  "  not  guilty."  But  pardon  me,  if  I  do  not  submit  to  be  tried 
by  the  Senate,  fresh  from  the  injustice  of  the  Nebraska  Bill.  In  the 
language  of  the  common  law  I  put  myself  upon  "  God  and  the  coun- 
.try,"  and  claim  The  same  trial  for  my  honored  Commonwealth. 

So  far  as  the  arraignment  touches  me  personally,  I  hardly  care  to  speak. 

In  response  for  Massachusetts,  there  are  other  things.  Something 
surely  must  be  pardoned  to  her  history.  In  Massachusetts  stands 
Boston.  In  Boston  stands  Faneuil  Hall,  where,  throughout  the  perils 
which  preceded  the  Revolution,  our  patriot  fathers  assembled  to  vow 
themselves  to  Freedom.  Here  in  those  days,  spoke  James  Otis,  full 
of  the  thought  that  "the  people's  safety  is  the  law  of  God."  Here, 
also,  spoke  Joseph  Warren,  inspired  by  the  sentiment  that  "death 
•with  all  its  tortures  is  preferable  to  Slavery."  And  here,  also,  thun 
dered  John  Adams,  fervid  with  the  conviction  that  "consenting  to 
Slavery  is  a  sacrilegious  breach  of  trust."  Not  far  from  this  venerable 
hall — between  this  temple  of  freedom  and  the  very  court-house,  to 
which  the  Senator  [Mr.  Jones]  has  referred — is  the  street,  where,  in 
1770,  the  first  blood  was  spilt  in  conflict  between  British  troops  and 
American  citizens,  and  among  the  victims  was  one  of  that  African 
•race,  which  you  so  much  despise.  Almost  within  sight  is  Bunker  Hill ; 


BOSTON— STAMP   ACT — TEA  ACT.  227 

further  off,  Lexington  and  Concord.  Amidst  these  scenes,  a  Slave- 
Hunter  from  Virginia  appears,  and  the  disgusting  rites  begin  by  which 
a  fellow-man  is  doomed  to  bondage.  Sir,  can  you  wonder  that  the 
people  were  moved  ? 

"  Who  can  he  wise,  amazed,  temperate  and  furious, 
Loyal  and  neutral,  in  a  moment.     No  man." 

It  is  true  that  the  Slave  Act  was  with  difficulty  executed,  and  that 
one  of  its  servants  perished  in  the  effort.  On  these  grounds  the 
Senator  from  Tennessee  charges  Boston  with  fanaticism.  I  express  no 
opinion  on  the  conduct  of  individuals ;  but  I  do  say,  that  the  fanaticism, 
which  the  Senator  condemns,  is  not  new  in  Boston.  It  is  the  same 
which  opposed  the  execution  of  the  Stamp  Act,  and  finally  secured 
its  repeal,  it  is  the  same  which  opposed  the  Tea  Tax.  It  is  the 
fanaticism  which  finally  triumphed  on  Bunker  Hill.  The  Senator  says 
that  Boston  is  filled  with  traitors.  That  charge  is  not  new.  Boston, 
of  old,  was  the  home  of  Hancock  and  Adams.  Her  traitors  now  are 
those  who  are  truly  animated  by  the  spirit  of  the  American  Revolution. 
In  condemning  them,  in  condemning  Massachusetts,  in  condemning 
these  remonstrants,  you  simply  give  a  proper  conclusion  to  the 
utterance  on  this  floor,  that  the  Declaration  of  Independence  is  "  a 
self-evident  lie." 

XLIV. 

Here  I  might  leave  the  imputations  on  Massachusetts.  But  the 
case  is  stronger  yet.  I  have  referred  to  the  Stamp  Act.  The  parallel 
is  of  such  aptness  and  importance,  that,  though  on  a  former  occasion  I 
presented  it  to  the  Senate,  I  cannot  forbear  from  pressing  it  again. 
As  the  precise  character  of  this  Act  may  not  be  familiar,  allow  me  to 
remind  the  Senate,  that  it  was  an  attempt  to  draw  money  from  the 
Colonies  through  a  stamp  tax,  while  the  determination  of  certain 
questions  of  forfeiture  under  the  statute  was  delegated,  not  to  the 
courts  of  common  law,  but  to  courts  of  admiralty,  without  trial  by 
jury.  This  Act  was  denounced  in  the  Colonies  at  once  on  its  passage, 
as  contrary  to  the  British  Constitution,  on  two  principal  grounds, 
identical  in  character  with  the  two  chief  grounds  on  which  the  Slave 
Act  is  now  declared  to  be  unconstitutional ;  first,  as  an  assumption  by 
Parliament  of  powers  not  belonging  to  it,  and  an  infraction  of  rights 
secured  to  the  Colonies  ;  and  secondly,  as  a  denial  of  trial  by  jury  in 


228  BOSTON   LED   THE   COLUMN    OF   FREEDOM. 

certain  cases  of  property.     On  these  grounds  the  Stamp  Act  was  held 
to  be  an  outrage. 

The  Colonies  were  aroused  against  it.  Virginia  first  declared  herself 
by  solemn  resolutions,  which  the  timid  thought  "  treasonable  ;  "—yes, 
sir,  "  treasonable," — even  as  that  word  is  now  applied  to  recent  mani 
festations  of  opinion  in  Boston — even  to  the  memorial  of  her  twenty- 
nine  hundred  merchants.  But  these  "  treasonable "  resolutions  soon 
found  a  response.  New  York  followed.  Massachusetts  came  next. 
In  an  address  from  the  Legislature  to  the  Governor,  the  true  ground 
of  opposition  to  the  Stamp  Act,  coincident  with  the  two  radical 
objections  to  the  Slave  Act,  are  clearly  set  forth,  with  the  following 
pregnant  conclusion  : 

"  We  deeply  regret  that  the  Parliament  has  seen  fit  to  pass  such  an 
Act  as  the  Stamp  Act ;  we  flatter  ourselves  that  the  hardships  of  it  will, 
shortly  appear  to  them  in  such  a  light  as  shall  induce  them,  in  their  wis 
dom,  to  repeal  it ;  in  the  meantime,  we  must  beg  your  Excellency  to  ex 
cuse  us  from  doing  any  tiling  to  assist  in  tlie  execution  of  it" 

The  Stamp  Act  was  welcomed  in  the  Colonies  by  the  Tories  of  that 
day,  precisely  as  the  unconstitutional  Slave  Act  has  been  welcomed 
by  imperious  numbers  among  us.  Hutchinson,  at  that  time  Lieutenant 
Governor  and  Judge  in  Massachusetts,  wrote  to  Ministers  in  England  : 

"  The  Stamp  Act  is  received  with  as  much  decency  as  could  be  ex 
pected.  It  leaves  no  room  for  evasion,  and  will  execute  itself." 

Like  the  Judges  of  our  day,  in  charges  to  Grand  Juries,  he  resolutely 
vindicated  the  Act,  and  admonished  "  the  Jurors  and  the  people"  to 
obey.  Like  Governors  in  our  day,  Bernard,  in  his  speech  to  the  Leg 
islature  of  Massachusetts,  demanded  unreasoning  submission.  "  I  shall 
not,"  says  this  British  Governor,  "enter  into  any  disquisition  of  the 
policy  of  the  Act.  I  have  only  to  say  it  is  an  Act  of  the  Parliament  of 
Great  Britain."  Like  Marshals  of  our  day,  the  Officers  of  the  Customs 
are  recorded  as  having  made  "application  for  a  military  force  to  assist 
them  in  the  execution  of  their  duty."  The  elaborate  answer  of  Massa 
chusetts — the  work  of  Samuel  Adams,  and  one  of  the  corner-stones  of 
our  history — was  pronounced  "  the  ravings  of  a  parcel  of  wild  enthusi 
asts,"  even  as  recent  proceedings  in  Boston,  resulting  in  the  memorial 
before  you,  have  been  characterized  on  this  floor.  Was  I  not  right  in 
adducing  this  parallel  ? 

The  country  was  aroused  against  the  execution  of  this  Act.  And 
here  Boston  took  the  lead. 

The  opposition  spread  and  deepened,  and  one  of  its  natural  tendencies 


PITT  DEMANDED   REPEAL.  229 

was  to  outbreak  and  violence.  On  one  occasion  in  Boston,  it  showed  itself 
in  the  lawlessness  of  a  mob,  of  a  most  formidable  character,  even  as  is  now 
charged.  Liberty,  in  her  struggles,  is  too  often  driven  to  force.  But  the 
town,  at  a  public  meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall,  called  without  delay,  on  the 
motion  of  the  opponents  of  the  Stamp  Act,  with  James  Otis  as  Chairman, 
condemned  the  outrage.  Eager  in  hostility  to  the  execution  of  the  Act, 
Boston  cherished  municipal  order,  and  constantly  discountenanced  all  tu 
mult,  violence  and  illegal  proceedings.  On  these  two  grounds  she  then 
stood  ;  and  her  position  was  widely  recognized. 

Thus  was  the  Stamp  Act  annulled,  even  before  its  actual  repeal,  which 
was  pressed  with  assiduity  by  petition  and  remonstrance,  on  the  next 
meeting  of  Parliament.  Among  the  potent  influences  was  the  entire 
concurrence  of  the  merchants,  and  especially  a  remonstrance  against 
the  Stamp  Act  by  the  merchants  of  New  York,  like  that  now  made 
against  the  Slave  Act  by  the  merchants  of  Boston.  Some  sought  at 
first  only  for  its  modification.  Even  James  Otis  began  with  this  mod 
erate  aim.  The  King  himself  showed  a  disposition  to  yield  to  this  ex 
tent.  But  Franklin,  who  was  then  in  England,  when  asked  whether 
the  Colonies  would  submit  to  the  Act,  if  mitigated  in  certain  particulars,, 
replied  :  "  No,  never,  unless  compelled  by  force  of  arms."  Then  it 
was,  that  the  great  Commoner,  William  Pitt,  said : 

"  Sir,  I  have  been  charged  with  giving  birth  to  sedition  in  America. 
They  have  spoken  their  sentiments  with  freedom  against  this  unhappy 
Act,  and  that  freedom  has  become  their  crime.  Sorry  I  am  to  hear  the 
liberty  of  speech  in  this  House  imputed  as  a  crime.  But  the  imputa 
tion  shall  not  discourage  me.  It  is  a  liberty  I  mean  to  exercise.  No 
gentleman  ought  to  be  afraid  to  exercise  it.  It  is  a  liberty  by  which 
the  gentleman  who  calumniates  it  might  and  ought  to  have  profited. 
The  gentleman  tells  us  America  is  obstinate  ;  America  is  almost  in  open 
rebellion.  I  rejoice  that  America  has  resisted.  Three  millions  of  slaves, 
so  dead  to  all  the  feelings  of  liberty  as  voluntarily  to  submit  to  be  slaves, 
would  have  been  fit  instruments  to  make  slaves  of  all  the  rest.  I  would 
not  debate  a  particular  point  of  law  with  the  gentleman  ;  but  I  draw  my 
ideas  of  PYeedom  from  the  vital  powers  of  the  British  Constitution — 
not  from  the  crude  and  fallacious  notions  too  much  relied  upon,  as  if  we 
were  but  in  the  morning  of  liberty.  I  can  acknowledge  no  veneration 
for  any  procedure,  law,  or  ordinance,  that  is  repugnant  to  reason  and 
the  first  elements  of  our  Constitution.  The  Americans  have  been 
wronged.  They  have  been  driven  to  madness.  Upon  the  whole,  I 
will  beg  leave  to  tell  the  House  what  is  really  my  opinion.  //  is,  that 
the  Stamp  Act  be  repealed,  absolutely,  totally  and  immediately,  and  that 
the  reason  for  the  repeal  be  assigned  because  it  was  founded  on  an  erro 
neous  principle" 


230  REPLY   TO   ASSAILANTS. 

Thus  spoke  this  great  orator,  at  the  time  tutelary  guardian  of  Amer 
ican  liberty.  He  was  not  unheeded.  Within  less  than  a  year  from  its 
original  passage,  the  Stamp  Act — assailed  as  unconstitutional  on  the 
precise  grounds  which  I  now  occupy  in  assailing  the  Slave  Act — was 
driven  from  the  statute  book. 

I  call  upon  you,  then,  to  receive  the  memorial,  and  hearken  to  its 
prayer.  All  other  memorials  asking  for  changes  in  existing  legislation 
are  treated  with  respect,  promptly  referred,  and  acted  upon.  This 
should  not  be  an  exception.  The  memorial  simply  asks  the  repeal  of 
an  obnoxious  statute,  which  is  entirely  within  the  competency  of  Con 
gress.  It  proceeds  from  a  large  number  of  respectable  citizens  whose 
autograph  signatures  are  attached.  It  is  brief  and  respectful  in  form  ; 
and,  in  its  very  brevity,  shows  that  spirit  of  freedom  which  should 
awaken  a  generous  response.  In  refusing  to  receive  it  or  refer  it, 
according  to  the  usage  of  the  Senate,  or  in  treating  it  with  any  indignity, 
you  offer  an  affront,  not  only  to  these  numerous  petitioners,  but  also  to 
the  great  right  of  petition,  which  is  never  more  sacred  than  when 
exercised  in  behalf  of  Freedom  against  an  obnoxious  statute.  Permit 
me  to  add,  that  by  this  course  you  provoke  the  very  spirit  which  you 
would  repress.  There  is  a  certain  plant  which  is  said  to  grow  when 
trodden  upon.  It  remains  to  be  seen  if  the  Boston  petitioners  have  not 
something  of  this  quality.  But  this  I  know,  sir,  that  the  Slave  Act,  like 
vice,  is  of  so  hideous  a  mien,  that  "  to  be  hated  it  needs  only  to  be  seen  ; " 
and  the  occurrences  of  this  day  will  make  it  visible  and  palpable  to  the 
people  in  new  forms  of  injustice. 

XLV. 

An  angry  personal  debate  followed,  in  which  Mr. 
Butler  of  South  Carolina,  and  Mr.  Mason  of  Virginia, 
directed  against  Mr.  Sumner  their  most  violent  and  insult 
ing  attacks,  as  well  as  against  the  State  he  represented. 
His  REPLY  TO  ASSAILANTS,  as  the  speech  was  afterwards 
known,  was  a  withering  satire,  which  could  be  answered 
only  by  scurrilous  abuse  ;  his  facts  were  impregnable. 

I  think,  sir,  that  I  am  not  the  only  person  on  this  floor,  who,  in  lately 
listening  to  these  two  self-confident  champions  of  the  peculiar  fanaticism 
of  the  South,  was  reminded  of  the  striking  words  by  Jefferson,  picturing 


ANSWERS   MASON   AND   BUTLER.  231 

the  influence  of  Slavery,  where  he  says,  "  The  whole  commerce  between 
master  and  slave  is  a  perpetual  exercise  of  the  most  boisterous  passions, 
the  most  unremitting  despotism  on  the  one  part,  and  degrading  sub 
mission  on  the  other.  Our  children  see  this,  and  learn  to  imitate  it ; 
for  man  is  an  imitative  animal.  The  parent  storms.  The  child  looks 
on,  catches  the  lineament  of  wrath,  puts  on  the  same  airs  in  the  circle  of 
smaller  slaves,  gives  loose  to  his  worst  passions,  and,  thus  nursed, 
educated  and  daily  exercised  in  tyranny,  cannot  but  be  stamped  by  it 
with  odious  peculiarities.  The  man  must  be  a  prodigy  who  can  retain  his 
manners  and  morals  undepraved  by  such  circumstances."  Nobody  who 
witnessed  the  Senator  from  South  Carolina  or  the  Senator  from  Virginia  in 
this  debate,  will  place  either  of  them  among  the  "prodigies"  described 
by  Jefferson.  As  they  spoke,  the  Senate  Chamber  must  have  seemed 
to  them,  in  the  characteristic  fantasy  of  the  moment,  a  plantation  well- 
stocked  with  slaves,  over  which  the  lash  of  the  overseer  had  free  swing. 
Sir,  it  gives  me  no  pleasure  to  say  these  things.  It  is  not  according  to 
my  nature.  Bear  witness,  that  I  do  it  only  in  just  self-defence 
against  the  unprecedented  assaults  and  provocations  of  this  debate. 
And,  in  doing  it,  I  desire  to  warn  certain  Senators,  that  if  they  expect,  by 
any  ardor  of  menace  or  by  any  tyrannical  frown,  to  shake  my  fixed 
resolve,  they  expect  a  vain  thing. 

There  was,  perhaps,  little  that  fell  from  these  two  champions,  as  the 
fit  was  on,  which  deserves  reply.  Certainly  not  the  hard  words  they 
used  so  readily  and  congenially.  The  veteran  Senator  from  Virginia 
[Mr.  Mason]  complained  that  I  had  characterized  one  of  his  "  con 
stituents  " — a  person  who  went  all  the  way  from  Virginia  to  Boston  in 
pursuit  of  a  slave — as  a  Slave-hunter.  Sir,  I  choose  to  call  things  by 
their  right  names.  White  I  call  white,  and  black  I  call  black.  And 
where  a  person  degrades  himself  to  the  work  of  chasing  a  fellow-man, 
who,  under  the  inspiration  of  Freedom  and  the  guidance  of  the  north 
star,  has  sought  a  freeman's  home  far  away  from  the  coffle  and  the 
chain — that  person,  whomsoever  he  may  be,  I  call  a  Slave-hunter.  If 
the  Senator  from  Virginia,  who  professes  nicety  of  speech,  will  give 
me  any  term  which  more  precisely  describes  such  an  individual,  I  will 
use  it.  Until  then,  I  must  continue  to  use  the  language  which  seems 
to  me  so  apt.  But  this  very  sensibility  of  the  veteran  Senator  at  a 
just  term,  which  truly  depicts  an  odious  character,  shows  a  shame  in 
which  I  exult.  It  was  said  by  one  of  the  philosophers  of  antiquity,  that 
a  blush  is  the  sign  of  virtue,  and  permit  me  to  add,  that,  in  this  violent 
sensibility,  I  recognize  a  blush  mantling  the  cheek  of  the  honorable 
Senator,  which  even  his  plantation  manners  cannot  conceal. 


232  JACKSON'S  WORDS  IN  1832. 

And  the  venerable  Senator  from  South  Carolina,  too,  [Mr.  Butler]  — 
he  has  betrayed  his  sensibility.  Here  let  nie.say  that  this  Senator  knows 
well  that  I  always  listen  with  peculiar  pleasure  to  his  racy  and  exube 
rant  speech,  as  it  gurgles  forth — sometimes  tinctured  by  generous  ideas 
— except  when,  forgetful  of  history,  and  in  defiance  of  reason,  he  under 
takes  to  defend  what  is  obviously  indefensible.  This  Senator  was  dis 
turbed,  when  to  his  inquiry,  personally,  pointedly  and  vehemently 
addressed  to  me,  whether  I  would  join  in  returning  a  fellow-man  to 
Slavery,  I  exclaimed,  "  Is  thy  servant  a  dog,  that  he  should  do  this 
thing?"  In  fitful  phrases,  which  seemed  to  come  from  the  unconscious 
excitement  so  common  with  the  Senator,  he  shot  forth  various  cries 
about  "  dogs  ; "  and,  among  other  things,  asked  if  there  was  any  "dog" 
in  the  Constitution  ?  The  Senator  did  not  seem  to  bear  in  mind,  through 
the  heady  currents  of  that  moment,  that,  by  the  false  interpretation  he 
has  fastened  upon  the  Constitution,  he  has  helped  to  nurture  there  a 
whole  kennel  of  Carolina  bloodhounds,  trained,  with  savage  jaws  and 
insatiable  scent,  for  the  hunt  of  flying  bondmen.  No,  sir,  I  do  not 
believe  that  there  is  any  "kennel  of  bloodhounds,"  or  even  any  "dog," 
in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

But,  Mr.  President,  since  the  brief  response  which  I  made  to  the 
inquiry  of  the  Senator,  and  which  leaped  unconsciously  to  my  lips,  has 
drawn  upon  me  various  attacks,  all  marked  by  grossness  of  language  and 
manner ;  since  I  have  been  charged  with  openly  declaring  my  purpose 
to  violate  the  Constitution,  and  to  break  the  oath  which  I  have  taken  at 
that  desk,  I  shall  be  pardoned  for  showing  simply  how  a  few  plain 
words  will  put  all  this  down. 


XLVI. 

The  Senators,  who  have  been  so  swift  in  misrepresentation  and  in 
assault  upon  me  as  disloyal  to  the  Constitution,  deserve  to  be  exposed, 
and  it  shall  be  done. 

Now,  sir,  I  begin  by  adopting  as  my  guide  the  authoritative  words  of 
Andrew  Jackson,  in  1832,  in  his  memorable  veto  of  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States.  To  his  course,  at  that  critical  time,  were  opposed  the 
authority  of  the  Supreme  Court  and  his  oath  to  support  the  Constitution. 
Here  is  his  triumphant  reply  : 

"  If  the  opinion  of  the  Supreme  Court  covers  the  whole  ground  of 
this  act,  it  ought  not  to  control  the  co-ordinate  authorities  of  this  Gov- 


DUTIES   UNDER   THE   OATH.  233 

ernment.  The  Congress,  the  Executive  and  the  Court,  must  each  for 
itself  be  guided  by  its  own  opinion  of  the  Constitution.  Each  public 
officer,  who  takes  an  oath  to  support  the  Constitution,  swears  that  he  will 
support  it  as  he  understands  it,  and  not  as  it  is  understood  by  others. 
It  is  as  much  the  duty  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  of  the  Senate, 
and  of  the  President,  to  decide  upon  the  constitutionality  of  any  bill  or 
resolution,  which  may  be  presented  to  them  for  passage  or  approval,  as 
it  is  of  the  Supreme  Judges  when  it  may  be  brought  before  them  for 
judicial  decision.  The  authority  of  the  Supreme  Court  must  not,  there 
fore,  be  permitted  to  control  the  Congress  or  the  Executive,  when  act 
ing  in  their  legislative  capacities,  but  to  have  only  such  influence  as  the 
force  of  their  reasoning  may  deserve." 

Mark  these  words,  and  let  them  sink  into  your  minds.  "  Each  public 
officer,  who  takes  an  oath  to  support  the  Constitution,  swears  that  he 
will  support  it  as  he  understands  it,  and  not  as  it  is  understood  by  oth 
ers."  Yes,  sir,  AS  HE  UNDERSTANDS  IT,  and  not  as  it  is  understood  by 
others.  Does  any  Senator  here  dissent  from  this  rule  ?  Does  the  Sen 
ator  from  Virginia  ?  Does  the  Senator  from  South  Carolina  ? 

Sir,  as  a  Senator,  I  have  taken  at  your  desk  the  oath  to  support  the 
Constitution,  as  I  understand  it.  And  understanding  it  as  I  do,  I  am 
bound  by  that  oath,  Mr.  President,  to  oppose  all  enactments  by  Con 
gress  on  the  subject  of  fugitive  slaves,  as  a  flagrant  violation  of  the 
Constitution  ;  especially  must  I  oppose  the  last  act  as  a  tyrannical  usur 
pation,  kindred  in  character  to  the  Stamp  Act,  which  our  fathers  indig 
nantly  refused  to  obey.  Here  my  duties,  under  the  oath  which  I  have 
taken  as  a  Senator,  end.  There  is  nothing  beyond.  On  this  explicit 
statement  of  my  constitutional  obligations,  I  stand,  as  upon  a  living 
rock,  and,  to  the  inquiry,  in  whatever  form  addressed  to  my  personal 
responsibility,  whether  I  would  aid,  directly  or  indirectly,  in  reducing 
or  surrendering  a  fellow-man  to  bondage,  I  reply  again,  "Is  thy  servant 
a  dog,  that  he  should  do  this  thing?" 

And,  sir,  looking  round  upon  this  Senate,  I  might  ask  fearlessly,  how 
many  there  are — even  in  this  body — if,  indeed,  there  be  a  single  Sena 
tor,  who  would  stoop  to  any  such  service  ?  Until  some  one  rises  and 
openly  confesses  his  willingness  to  become  a  Slave-hunter,  I  will  not 
believe  there  can  be  one.  [Here  Mr.  Simmer  paused,  but  nobody  rose.] 
And  yet  honorable  and  chivalrous  Senators  have  rushed  headlong  to 
denounce  me  because  I  openly  declared  my  repudiation  of  a  service  at 
which  every  manly  bosom  must  revolt.  "  Sire,  I  have  found  in  Bayonne 
brave  soldiers  and  good  citizens,  but  not  one  executioner"  was  the  noble 
utterance  of  the  Governor  of  that  place  to  Charles  IX.  of  France,  in 


234  FAR-FAMED   RESOLUTIONS   OF    1/98. 

response  to  the  royal  edict  for  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew  ;  and 
such  a  spirit,  I  trust,  will  yet  animate  the  people  of  this  country,  when 
pressed  to  the  service  of  "  dogs  !  " 

To  that  other  question,  which  has  been  proposed,  whether  Massachu 
setts,  by  State  laws,  will  carry  out  the  oifensive  clause  in  the  Constitution, 
according  to  the  understanding  of  the  venerable  Senator  from  South 
Carolina,  I  reply  that  Massachusetts,  at  all  times,  has  been  ready  to  do 
her  duty  under  the  Constitution,  as  she  understands  it ;  and,  I  doubt 
not,  will  ever  continue  of  this  mind.  More  than  this  I  cannot  say. 

In  quitting  this  topic,  I  cannot  forbear  to  remark  that  the  assault  on 
me  for  my  disclaimer  of  all  constitutional  obligation,  resting  upon  me 
as  a  Senator  or  citizen,  to  aid  in  making  a  man  a  slave,  or  in  surrender 
ing  him  to  Slavery,  comes  with  an  ill  grace  from  the  veteran  Senator 
from  Virginia,  a  State  which,  by  its  far-famed  resolutions  of  1798,  as 
sumed  to  determine  its  constitutional  obligations,  even  to  the  extent  of 
openly  declaring  two  different  Acts  of  Congress  null  and  void  ;  and  it 
comes  also  with  an  ill  grace  from  the  venerable  Senator  from  South 
Carolina,  a  State  which,  in  latter  days,  has  arrayed  itself  openly  against 
the  Federal  authorities,  and  which  threatens  nullification  as  often  as 
babies  cry. 

Surely  the  Senator  from  South  Carolina,  with  his  silver.-white  locks, 
would  have  hesitated  to  lead  this  assault  upon  me,  had  he  not,  for  the 
moment,  been  entirely  oblivious  of  the  history  of  the  State  which  he 
represents.  Not  many  years  have  passed  since  an  incident  occurred  at 
Charleston,  in  South  Carolina — not  at  Boston,  in  Massachusetts — which 
ought  to  be  remembered.  The  postmaster  of  that  place,  acting  under 
a  controlling  Public  Opinion  there,  informed  the  head  of  his  Depart 
ment  at  Washington  that  he  had  determined  to  suppress  all  Anti- 
slavery  publications,  and  requested  instructions  for  the  future.  Thus, 
in  violation  of  the  laws  of  the  land,  the  very  mails  were  rifled,  and 
South  Carolina  smiled  approbation  of  the  outrage. 

XLVII. 

But  there  is  another  incident  in  the  history  of  South  Carolina,  which 
as  a  loyal  son  of  Massachusetts,  I  cannot  forget,  and  which  rises  now 
in  judgment  against  the  venerable  Senator.  Massachusetts  had  com 
missioned  a  distinguished  gentleman,  of  blameless  life  and  eminent  pro 
fessional  qualities,  who  served  with  honor  in  the  other  House  [Hon. 
Samuel  Hoar],  to  reside  at  Charleston  for  a  brief  period,  in  order  to 


A  TRIBUTE  TO   MASSACHUSETTS.  235 

guard  the  rights  of  her  free  colored  citizens,  assailed  on  arrival  there  by 
an  inhospitable  statute,  so  gross  in  its  provisions  that  an  eminent  char 
acter  of  South  Carolina,  a  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  [Hon.  William  Johnson]  had  characterized  it  as  "  trampling  on 
the  Constitution,"  and  "a  direct  attack  upon  the  sovereignty  of  the 
United  States."  Massachusetts  had  read  in  the  Constitution  a  clause 
closely  associated  with  that  touching  "  fugitives  from  service,"  to  the 
following  effect  :  "  The  citizens  of  each  State  shall  be  entitled  to  all 
privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens  in  the  several  States,"  and  sup 
posed  that  this  would  yet  be  recognized  by  South  Carolina.  But  she 
was  mistaken.  Her  venerable  representative,  an  unarmed  old  man, 
with  hair  as  silver-white  almost  as  that  of  the  Senator  before  me,  was 
beset  in  Charleston  by  a  "respectable"  mob,  prevented  from  entering 
upon  his  duties,  and  driven  from  the  State  ;  while  the  Legislature 
stepped  in  to  sanction  this  shameless,  lawless  act,  by  placing  on  the 
statute  book  an  order  for  his  expulsion.  And  yet,  sir,  the  excitable 
Senator  from  South  Carolina  is  fired  by  the  fancied  delinquencies  of 
Massachusetts  towards  Slave-hunters,  and  also  by  my  own  refusal  to 
render  them  any  aid  or  comfort ;  he  shoots  questions  in  volleys,  assumes 
to  measure  our  duties  by  his  understanding,  and  ejaculates  a  lecture  at 
Massachusetts  and  myself.  Sir,  before  that  venerable  Senator  again 
ventures  thus,  let  him  return  to  his  own  State,  seamed  all  over  with  the 
scars  of  nullification,  and  first  lecture  there.  Ay,  sir,  let  him  look  into 
his  own  heart,  and  lecture  to  himself. 

But  enough  for  the  present  on  the  extent  of  my  constitutional  obli 
gations  to  become  a  Slave-hunter.  There  are,  however,  yet  other  things 
in  the  assault  of  the  venerable  Senator,  which,  for  the  sake  of  truth,  in 
just  defence  of  Massachusetts,  and  in  honor  of  Freedom,  shall  not  be 
left  unanswered.  Alluding  to  those  days  when  Massachusetts  was  illus 
trated  by  Otis,  Hancock,  and  "the  brace  of  Adamses;"  when  Faneuil 
Hall  sent  forth  echoes  of  liberty  which  resounded  even  to  South  Caro 
lina,  and  the  very  stones  in  the  streets  of  Boston  rose  in  mutiny  against 
tyranny,  the  Senator  with  the  silver-white  locks,  in  the  very  ecstasy  of 
Slavery,  broke  forth  in  the  ejaculation  that  Massachusetts  was  then  "  slave- 
holding  ;"  and  he  presumed  to  hail  these  patriots  as  representatives  of 
"hardy,  slaveholding  Massachusetts."  Sir,  I  repel  the  imputation.  It 
is  true  that  Massachusetts  was  "  hardy ;  "  but  she  was  not,  in  any  just 
sense,  "  slaveholding."  And  had  she  been  so,  she  could  not  have  been 
"  hardy."  The  two  characteristics  are  inconsistent  as  weakness  and 
strength,  as  sickness  and  health — I  had  almost  said,  as  death  and  life. 


236  NO   SLAVE   BORN   IN   MASSACHUSETTS. 

The  Senator  opens  a  page,  which  I  would  willingly  present.  Sir, 
Slavery  never  flourished  in  Massachusetts ;  nor  did  it  ever  prevail  there 
at  any  time,  even  in  early  Colonial  days,  to  such  a  degree  as  to  be  a 
distinctive  feature  in  her  powerful  civilization.  Her  few  slaves  were 
merely  for  a  term  of  years,  or  for  life.  If,  in  point  of  fact,  their  issue 
was  sometimes  held  in  bondage,  it  was  never  by  sanction  of  any  statute 
or  law  of  Colony  or  Commonwealth.  Such  has  been  the  solemn  judg 
ment  of  her  Supreme  Court.*  In  all  her  annals,  no  person  was  ever 
born  a  slave  on  the  soil  of  Massachusetts.  This,  of  itself,  is  a  response 
to  the  imputation  of  the  Senator. 

A  benign  and  brilliant  Act  of  her  Legislature,  as  far  back  as  1646, 
shows  her  sensibility  on  this  subject.  A  Boston  ship  had  brought  home 
two  negroes,  seized  on  the  coast  of  Guinea.  Thus  spoke  Massachusetts  : 

"  The  General  Court,  conceiving  themselves  bound  by  the  first  op 
portunity  to  bear  witness  against  the  heinous  and  crying  sin  of  man- 
stealing,  also  to  prescribe  such  timely  redress  for  what  is  past,  and  such  a 
law  for  the  future  as  may  sufficiently  deter  all  those  belonging  to  us,  to 
have  to  do  in  such  vile  and  most  odious  conduct,  justly  abhorred  of  all 
good  and  just  men,  do  order  that  the  negro  interpreter,  with  others  un 
lawfully  taken,  be,  by  the  first  opportunity,  at  the  charge  of  the  country, 
for  the  present,  sent  to  his  native  country  of  Guinea,  and  a  letter  with 
him  of  the  indignation  of  the  Court  thereabout  and  justice  thereof." 

The  Colony  that  could  issue  this  noble  decree  was  inconsistent  with 
itself,  when  it  allowed  its  rocky  face  to  be  pressed  by  the  footsteps  of  a 
single  slave.  But  a  righteous  public  opinion  early  and  constantly  set 
its  face  against  Slavery.  As  early  as  1701,  a  vote  was  entered  upon  the 
records  of  Boston  to  the  following  effect  :  "  The  Representatives  are 
desired  to  promote  the  encouraging  the  bringing  of  white  servants,  and 
to  put  a  period  to  negroes  being  slaves"  Perhaps,  in  all  history,  this  is 
the  earliest  testimony  from  any  official  body  against  Negro  Slavery,  and 
I  thank  God  that  it  came  from  Boston,  my  native  town.  In  1705,  a 
heavy  duty  was  imposed  upon  every  negro  imported  into  the  province  ; 
in  1712,  the  importation  of  Indians  as  servants  or  slaves  was  strictly 
forbidden ;  but  the  general  subject  of  Slavery  attracted  little  attention 
till  the  beginning  of  the  controversy,  which  ended  in  the  Revolution, 
when  the  rights  of  the  blacks  were  blended  by  all  true  patriots  with 
those  of  the  whites.  Sparing  all  unnecessary  details,  suffice  it  to  say, 
that,  as  early  as  1769,  one  of  the  courts  of  Massachusetts,  anticipating, 
by  several  years,  the  renowned  judgment  in  Somersett's  case,  established 

*  Lanesboro  v.   West  field,  16  Mass.  74. 


MASSACHUSETTS   EXTERMINATES   SLAVERY.  237 

within  its  jurisdiction  the  principle  of  emancipation,  and,  under  its  touch 
of  magic  power,  changed  a  slave  into  a  freeman.  Similar  decisions 
followed  in  other  places.  In  1776,  the  whole  number  of  blacks,  both 
free  and  slave,  sprinkled  thinly  over  "hardy"  Massachusetts,  was  five 
thousand  two  hundred  and  forty-nine,  being  to  the  whites  as  one  is  to 
sixty-five;  while  in  "  slaveholding "  South  Carolina  the  number  of 
negro  slaves,  at  that  time,  was  not  far  from  one  hundred  thousand,  be 
ing  nearly  one  slave  for  every  freeman,  thus  rendering  that  Colony  any 
thing  but  "  hardy."  At  last,  in  1780,  even  before  the  triumph  of  York- 
town  had  led  the  way  to  that  peace  which  set  its  seal  upon  our  National 
Independence,  Massachusetts,  animated  by  the  struggles  of  the  Revo 
lution,  and  rilled  by  the  sentiments  of  Freedom,  placed  in  front  of  her 
Bill  of  Rights  the  emphatic  words,  that  "  all  men  are  born  free  and 
equal,"  and  by  this  declaration  exterminated  every  vestige  of  Slavery 
within  her  borders.  All  hail,  then,  to  Massachusetts,  the  just  and  gen 
erous  Commonwealth  in  whose  behalf  I  have  the  honor  to  speak. 

Thus,  sir,  does  the  venerable  Senator  err  when  he  presumes  to  vouch 
Massachusetts  for  Slavery,  and  to  associate  this  odious  institution  with 
the  names  of  her  great  patriots. 

But  the  venerable  Senator  errs  yet  more,  if  possible,  when  he  at 
tributes  to  "slaveholding"  communities  a  leading  part  in  those  con 
tributions  of  arms  and  treasure  by  which  independence  was  secured. 
Here  are  his  exact  words,  as  I  find  them  in  the  Globe,  revised  by 
himself: 

"Sir,  when  blood  was  shed  upon  the  plains  of  Lexington  and  Con 
cord,  in  an  issue  made  by  Boston,  to  whom  was  an  appeal  made,  and 
from  whom  was  it  answered  ?  The  answer  is  found  in  the  acts  of 
slaveholding  States— animis  opibusque  parati.  Yes,  sir,  the  independ 
ence  of  America,  to  maintain  republican  liberty,  was  won  by  the 
arms  and  treasure,  by  the  patriotism  and  good  faith  of  slaveholding 
communities." 

Mark  the  language,  sir,  as  emphasized  by  himself.  Surely,  the  Sen 
ator  with  his  silver-white  locks,  all  fresh  from  the  outrage  of  the  Ne 
braska  Bill,  cannot  stand  here  and  proclaim  "the  good  faith  of  slave- 
holding  communities,"  except  in  irony.  Yes,  sir,  in  irony.  And  let  me 
add,  that  when  this  Senator  presumes  to  say  that  American  Independ 
ence  "was  won  by  the  arms  and  treasure  of  slaveholding  communities," 
he  speaks  eith  ;r  in  irony  or  in  ignorance. 

The  question  which  the  venerable  Senator  from  South  Carolina  here 
opens,  by  his  vaunt,  I  have  no  desire  to  discuss ;  but,  since  it  is  pre- 


238  NO   INJUSTICE   TO   SOUTH   CAROLINA. 

sented,  I  confront  it  at  once.  This  is  not  the  first  time,  during  my  brief 
service  here,  that  this  Senator  has  sought  on  this  floor  to  provoke  a 
comparison  between  slaveholding  communities  and  the  free  States. 

The  Senator  is  strangely  oblivious  of  the  statistical  contrasts. 

For  myself,  sir,  I  understand  the  sensibilities  of  Senators  from  slave- 
holding  communities,  and  would  not  wound  them  by  a  superfluous 
word.  Of  Slavery  I  speak  strongly,  as  I  must ;  but  thus  far,  even  at  the 
expense  of  my  argument,  I  have  avoided  the  contrasts,  founded  on  de 
tails  of  figures  and  facts,  which  are  so  obvious  between  the  free  States 
and  "slaveholding  communities;"  especially  have  I  shunned  all  allu 
sion  to  South  Carolina.  But  the  venerable  Senator,  to  whose  discretion 
that  State  has  intrusted  its  interests  here,  will  not  allow  me  to  be  still. 

God  forbid  that  I  should  do  injustice  to  South  Carolina.  I  know 
well  the  gallantry  of  many  of  her  sons.  I  know  the  response  which  she 
made  to  the  appeal  of  Boston  for  union  against  the  Stamp  Act — the 
Fugitive  Slave  Act  of  that  day — by  the  pen  of  Christopher  Gadsden. 
And  I  remember  with  sorrow  that  this  patriot  was  obliged  to  confess,  at 
the  time,  her  "  weakness  in  having  such  a  number  of  slaves,"  though  it 
is  to  his  credit  that  he  recognized  Slavery  as  a  "  crime."  I  have  no 
pleasure  in  dwelling  on  the  humiliations  of  South  Carolina  ;  I  do  not 
desire  to  expose  her  sores ;  I  would  not  lay  bare  her  nakedness.  But 
the  Senator,  in  his  vaunt  for  "slaveholding  communities,"  has  made  a 
claim  for  Slavery  which  is  so  inconsistent  with  history,  and  so  deroga 
tory  to  Freedom,  that  I  cannot  allow  it  to  pass  unanswered. 


XLVIII. 

This,  sir,  is  not  the  first  time,  even  during  my  little  experience  here, 
that  the  same  claim  has  been  made  on  this  floor ;  and  this  seems  more 
astonishing,  because  the  archives  of  the  country  furnish  such  ample  and 
undoubted  materials  for  its  refutation.  The  question  of  the  comparative 
contributions  of  men  by  different  States  and  sections  of  the  country  in 
the  war  of  the  Revolution,  was  brought  forward  as  early  as  1790,  in  the 
first  Congress  under  the  Constitution,  in  the  animated  and  protracted 
debate  on  the  assumption  of  State  debts  by  the  Union  On  this  oc 
casion  Fisher  Ames,  a  Representative  from  Massachusetts,  memorable 
for  his  classic  eloquence,  moved  a  call  upon  the  War  Department  for 
the  number  of  men  furnished  by  each  State  to  the  Revolutionary  armies. 
This  motion,  though  vehemently  opposed,  was  carried  by  a  small 


QUOTA  OF  REVOLUTIONARY  TROOPS. 


239 


majority.  Shortly  afterwards,  the  answer  to  the  call  was  received  from 
the  Department,  at  that  time  under  the  charge  of  General  Knox.  This 
answer,  which  is  one  of  the  documents  of  our  history,  places  beyond 
cavil  or  criticism  the  exact  contributions  in  arms  of  each  State.  Here 
it  is — copied  from  the  first  volume  of  the  American  Archives. 

Statement  of  tJie  number  of  troops  and  militia  furnished  by  the  several  States,  for 
the  siipport  of  the  Revolutionary  war,  from  1775  to  1783,  inclusive. 


NORTHERN  STATES. 
New  Hampshire 
Massachusetts 
Rhode  Island     . 
Connecticut 
New  York 
Pennsylvania 
New  Jersey 

Total      . 

SOUTHERN  STATES. 
Delaware 
Maryland 
Virginia 
North  Carolina 
South  Carolina     . 
Georgia 


Number  of 

continental 

troops. 

12,496 
67,937 
5,908 
32,039 
I7,78l 
25,608 
10,727 


2,387 


26,672 

7,263 


Total 


2,679 
58,421 


Number  of 
militia. 


2,093 

15,155 
4,284 

7,792 
3>3I2 

7,357 
6,055 


376 
5,464 
4,163 
2,716 


12,719 


Total  militia 

&  continental 

troops. 

14,598 
83,092 
IO,I92 

39,831 
21,093 

32,965 
16,782 


Conjectural 

estimate  of 

militia. 


172,496       46,048      218,553 


2,763 
19,376 
30,835 

9,969 

2,679 
71,130 


3^950 


1,000 

4,000 

21,880 

12,000 
28,000 

9,930 
76,810 


It  should  be  understood  that,  at  this  time,  there  was  but  little  differ 
ence  in  numbers  between  the  population  of  the  Southern  States  and  that 
of  the  Northern  States.  By  the  census  of  1790,  the  Southern  had  a 
population  of  1,956,354;  the  Northern  had  a  population  of  1,968,455. 
But,  notwithstanding  this  comparative  equality  of  population  in  the  two 
sections,  the  North  furnished  vastly  more  men  than  the  South. 

Of  continental  troops,  the  Southern  States  furnished  58,421  ;  the 
Northern  furnished  172,496  ;  making  about  three  men  furnished  to  the 
continental  army  by  the  Northern  States  to  one  from  the  Southern. 

Of  militia,  whose  services  are  authenticated  by  the  War  Office,  the 
Southern  States  furnished  12,719;  the  Northern  furnished  46,048; 
making  nearly  four  men  furnished  to  the  militia  by  the  Northern  States 
to  one  from  the  Southern. 


24O  THE   SOUTH    ALWAYS    BEHIND. 

Of  militia,  whose  services  were  not  authenticated  by  the  War  Office, 
but  are  set  down  in  the  return  as  conjectural  only,  we  have  76,810 
furnished  by  the  Southern  States  and  30,950  furnished  by  the  Northern  ; 
making,  under  this  head,  more  than  two  men  furnished  by  the  Southern 
to  one  from  the  Northern.  The  chief  services  of  the  Southern  States — 
for  which  the  venerable  Senator  now  claims  so  much — it  will  be 
observed  with  a  smile,  were  conjectural  only  ! 

Looking,  however,  at  the  sum  total  of  continental  troops,  authenticated 
militia  and  conjectural  militia,  we  have  147,940  furnished  by  the  South 
ern  States,  while  249,503  were  furnished  by  the  Northern  ;  making  100,- 
ooo  men  furnished  to  the  war  by  the  Northern  more  than  the  Southern. 

But  the  disparity  swells  when  we  directly  compare  South  Carolina 
and  Massachusetts.  Of  continental  troops,  and  authenticated  militia, 
and  conjectural  militia,  South  Carolina  furnished  33,508,  while  Massa 
chusetts  furnished  92,592  ;  making  in  the  latter  sum  nearly  three  men 
for  one  furnished  by  South  Carolina.  Look,  however,  at  the  con 
tinental  troops  and  the  authenticated  militia  furnished  by  the  two 
States,  and  here  you  will  find  only  5,508  furnished  by  South  Carolina, 
while  83,092  were  furnished  by  Massachusetts — being  sixteen  times 
more  tlian  by  South  Carolina,  and  much  more  tJian  by  all  the  Southern 
States  together.  Here  are  facts  and  figures  of  which  the  Senator  ought 
not  to  be  ignorant. 

Did  the  occasion  require,  I  might  go  further,  and  minutely  portray 
the  imbecility  of  the  Southern  States,  and  particularly  of  South  Caro 
lina,  in  the  war  of  the  Revolution,  as  compared  with  the  Northern 
States.  This  is  a  sad  chapter  of  history,  upon  which  I  unwillingly 
dwell.  Faithful  annals  record  that,  as  early  as  1778,  the  six  South 
Carolina  regiments,  composing,  with  the  Georgia  regiment,  the  regular 
force  of  the  Southern  Department,  did  not,  in  the  whole,  muster  above 
eight  hundred  men  ;  nor  was  it  possible  to  fill  up  their  ranks.  During 
the  succeeding  year,  the  Governor  of  South  Carolina,  pressed  by  the 
British  forces,  offered  to  stipulate  the  neutrality  of  his  State  during  the 
war,  leaving  it  to  be  decided  at  the  peace  to  whom  it  should  belong — 
a  premonitory  symptom  of  the  secession  proposed  in  our  own  day  ! 
At  last,  after  the  fatal  field  of  Camden,  no  organized  American  force 
was  left  in  this  region.  The  three  Southern  States — animis  opibusque 
fiarati,  according  to  the  vaunt  of  the  Senator — had  not  a  single  bat 
talion  in  the  field  !  During  all  this  period  the  men  of  Massachusetts 
were  serving  their  country,  not  at  home,  but  away  from  their  own  bor 
ders  ;  for,  from  the  time  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  Massa 
chusetts  never  saw  the  smoke  of  an  enemy's  camp. 


GENERAL   GREENE'S   TESTIMONY.  241 

At  last,  by  the  military  genius  and  remarkable  exertions  of  General 
Greene,  a  Northern  man,  who  assumed  the  command  of  the  Southern 
army,  South  Carolina  was  rescued  from  the  British  power.  But  the 
trials  of  this  successful  leader  reveal,  in  a  striking  manner,  the  weak 
ness  of  the  "slaveholding"  State  which  he  saved.  Some  of  these  are 
graphically  presented  in  his  letters.  Writing  to  Governor  Reed,  of 
Pennsylvania,  under  date  of  3d  May,  1781,  he  says  :  — 

"Those  whose  true  interest  it  was  to  have  informed  Congress  and 
the  people  to  the  northward  of  the  real  state  of  things,  have  joined  in 
the  deception,  and  magnified  the  strength  and  resources  of  this 
country  infinitely  above  their  ability.  Many  of  those,  who  adhere  to 
our  party,  are  so  fond  of  pleasure,  that  they  cannot  think  of  making 
the  necessary  sacrifices  to  support  the  Revolution.  There  are  many 
good  and  virtuous  people  to  the  southward ;  but  they  cannot  animate 
the  inhabitants  in  general,  as  you  can  to  the  northward" —  Gordon' s 
History  of  American  Revolution,  vol.  iv.  p.  87. 

Writing  to  Colonel  Davies,  under  date  of  23d  May,  1781,  he  ex 
poses  the  actual  condition  of  the  country  :  — 

"  The  animosity  between  the  Whigs  and  Tories  of  this  State  renders 
their  situation  truly  deplorable.  There  is  not  a  day  passes  but  there 
are  more  or  less  who  fall  a  sacrifice  to  this  savage  disposition.  The 
Whigs  seem  determined  to  extirpate  the  Tories,  and  the  Tories  the 
Whigs.  Some  thousands  have  fallen  in  this  way  in  this  quarter,  and 
the  evil  rages  with  more  violence  than  ever.  If  a  stop  cannot  be  soon 
put  to  these  massacres,  the  country  will  be  depopulated  in  a  few 
months  more,  as  neither  Whig  nor  Tory  can  live." 

To  Lafayette,  General  Greene,  under  date  of  2pth  December,  1780,. 
describes  the  weakness  of  his  troops  : 

"  It  is  now  within  a  few  days  of  the  time  you  mentioned  of  being 
with  me.  Were  you  to  arrive,  you  would  find  a  few  ragged,  half- 
starved  troops  in  the  wilderness,  destitute  of  everything  necessary  for 
either  the  comfort  or  convenience  of  soldiers."  *  *  *  "The  country  is 
almost  laid  waste,  and  the  inhabitants  plunder  one  another  with  little 
less  than  savage  fury.  We  live  from  hand  to  mouth,  and  have  nothing 
to  subsist  on  but  what  we  collect  with  armed  parties.  In  this  situation, 
I  believe  you  will  agree  with  me,  there  is  nothing  inviting  this  way, 
especially  when  I  assure  you  our  whole  force  fit  for  duty,  that  are  pro 
perly  clothed  and  properly  equipped,  does  not  amount  to  eight  hundred 
men." — Johnson }s  Life  of  Greene,  vol.  i.  p.  340. 

Writing  to  Mr.  Varnum,  a  member  of  Congress,  he  says  : — 

"There  is  a  great  spirit  of  enterprise  prevailing  among  the  militia  of 
these  Southern  States,  especially  with  the  volunteers.     But  their  mode 
of  going  to  war  is  so  destructive,  that  it  is  the  greatest  folly  in  the 
16 


242  RAMSAY'S  HISTORY  OF  THE  REVOLUTION. 

world  to  trust  the  liberties  of  a  people  to  such  a  precarious  defence." — 
Johnson's  Life  of  Greene,  vol.  i.  p.  397. 

Nothing  can  be  more  authentic  or  complete  than  this  testimony. 
Here,  also,  is  what  is  said  by  David  Ramsay,  an  estimable  citizen  of 
South  Carolina,  in  his  History  of  the  Revolution  in  that  State,  published 
in  1785,  only  a  short  time  after  the  scenes  which  he  describes  : — 

"  While  the  American  soldiers  lay  encamped  (in  the  low  country 
near  Charleston),  their  tattered  rags  were  so  completely  worn  out,  that 
seven  hundred  of  them  were  as  naked  as  they  were  born,  excepting  a 
small  strip  of  cloth  about  their  waists,  and  they  were  nearly  as  desti 
tute  of  meat  as  of  clothing." — Vol.  i.  p.  258. 

The  military  weakness  of  this  "slaveholding  community"  is  too  ap 
parent.  Learn  now  its  occasion  :  and  then  join  with  me  in  amazement 
that  a  Senator  from  South  Carolina  should  attribute  our  independence 
to  anything  "slaveholding."  The  records  of  the  country,  and  various 
•voices,  all  disown  his  brag  for  Slavery.  The  State  of  South  Carolina, 
iby  authentic  history,  disowns  it.  Listen,  if  you  please,  to  peculiar  and 
•decisive  testimony,  under  date  of  29th  March,  1779,  from  the  Secret 
Journal  of  the  Continental  Congress  : — 

"  The  Committee  appointed  to  take  into  consideration  the  circum 
stances  of  the  Southern  States,  and  the  ways  and  means  for  their  safety 
.and  defence,  report,  that  the  State  of  South  Carolina  (as  represented 

by  the  Delegates  of  the  said  State,  and  by  Mr.  Huger,  who  has  come, 
'here  at  the  request  of  the  Governor  of  the  said  State,  on  purpose  to 

explain  the  circumstances  thereof)  is  UNABLE  to  make  any  effectual 

efforts  with  militia,  by  reason  of  the  great  proportion  of  citizens  neccs- 
.sary  to  remain  at  home,  to  prevent  insurrection  among  the  negroes,  and 

to  prevent  the  desertion  of  them  to  the  enemy.  That  the  state  of  the 
•country,  and  the  great  number  of  these  people  among  them,  expose  the 

inhabitants  to  great  danger,  from  the  endeavors  of  the  enemy  to  excite 
'them  to  revolt  or  desert." — Vol.  i.  p.  105. 

Here  is  South  Carolina  secretly  disclosing  her  military  weakness,  anc' 
•its  ignoble  occasion  ;  thus  repudiating,  in  advance,  the  vaunt  of  her 
Senator,  who  finds  strength  and  gratulation  in  Slavery  rather  than  in 
^Freedom.  It  was  during  the  war  that  she  thus  shrived  herself,  on 
ibended  knees,  in  the  confessional  of  the  Continental  Congress.  But 
the  same  ignominious  confession  was  made,  some  time  after  the  war,  in 
open  debate,  on  the  floor  of  Congress,  by  Mr.  Burke,  a  Representative 
from  South  Carolina: — 

"There  is  not  a  gentleman  on  the  floor  who  is  a  stranger  to  the 
feeble  situation  of  our  State,  when  we  entered  into  the  war  to  oppose 
•the  British  power.  We  were  not  only  without  money,  without  an  army 


MILITARY   WEAKNESS   OF   SOUTHERN   STATES.  243 

or  military  stores,  but  we  were  few  in  number,  and  likely  to  be  entangled 
with  our  domestics,  in  case  the  enemy  invaded  us." — Annals  of  Congress, 
1789,  1791,  vol.  ii.  p.  1484. 

Similar  testimony  to  the  weakness  engendered  by  Slavery  was  also 
borne  by  Mr.  Madison,  in  open  debate  in  Congress  : 

"  Every  addition  they  (Georgia  and  South  Carolina)  receive  to  their 
number  of  slaves,  tends  to  weaken  them,  and  render  them  less  capable  of 
self-defence'' — Annals  of  Congress,  vol.  i.  p.  340. 

The  historian  of  South  Carolina,  Dr.  Ramsay,  a  contemporary  observer 
of  the  very  scenes  which  he  describes,  also  exposes  this  weakness  : — 

"  The  forces  under  the  command  of  General  Provost  marched 
through  the  richest  settlements  of  the  State,  where  are  the  fewest  white 
inhabitants  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  slaves.  The  hapless  Afri 
cans,  allured  with  the  hope  of  Freedom,  forsook  their  owners,  and  re 
paired  in  great  numbers  to  the  royal  army.  They  endeavored  to  recom 
mend  themselves  to  their  new  masters  by  discovering  where  their 
owners  had  concealed  their  property,  and  were  assisting  in  carrying  it 
off." — History  of  South  Carolina,  vol.  i.  p.  312. 

And  the  same  candid  historian,  describing  the  invasion  of  the  next 
year,  says  : — 

"  The  slaves  a  second  time  flocked  to  the  British  army." — Vol.  i.  p.  336. 

And  at  a  still  later  day,  Mr.  Justice  Johnson,  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States,  and  a  citizen  of  South  Carolina,  in  his  elaborate 
Life  of  General  Greene,  speaking  of  negro  slaves,  makes  the  same  un 
happy  admission.  He  says  : — 

"But  the  number  dispersed  through  these  (Southern)  States  was  very 
great ;  so  great,  as  to  render  it  impossible  for  the  citizens  to  muster  free 
men  enough  to  withstand  the  pressure  of  the  British  arms" — Vol.  ii. 
p.  472. 

XLIX. 

Surely,  sir,  this  is  enough,  and  more.  Thus,  from  authentic  docu 
ments — including  the  very  muster-rolls  of  the  Revolution — we  learn  the 
small  contributions  of  men  and  the  military  weakness  of  the  Southern 
States,  particularly  of  South  Carolina,  as  compared  with  the  Northern 
States  ;  and  from  the  very  lips  of  South  Carolina,  on  four  different  oc 
casions,  speaking  by  a  Committee  ;  by  one  of  her  representatives  in 
Congress ;  by  her  historian ;  and  by  an  eminent  citizen,  we  have  the 
confession  not  only  of  weakness,  but  that  this  weakness  was  caused  by 
Slavery.  Arid  yet,  in  the  face  of  this  cumulative  and  unimpeachable 


244  THE   RIGHTS   OF   HUMAN   NATURE. 

testimony,  we  are  called  to  listen,  in  the  American  Senate,  to  a  high 
flying  boast,  from  a  venerable  Senator,  that  American  Independence  was 
achieved  by  the  arms  and  treasure  of  "  slave-holding  communities  ;" 
an  assumption,  baseless  as  the  fabric  of  a  vision,  in  any  way  it  may  be 
interpreted  ;  whether  as  meaning  baldly  that  independence  was  achieved 
by  those  Southern  States,  which  were  the  peculiar  home  of  Slavery,  or 
that  it  was  achieved  by  any  strength  or  influence  which  came  from  that 
noxious  source.  Sir,  I  speak  here  for  a  Commonwealth  of  just  renown, 
but  I  speak  also  for  a  cause  which  is  more  than  any  Commonwealth, 
even  that  which  I  represent ;  and  I  cannot  allow  the  Senator,  with  his 
silver-white  locks,  to  discredit  either.  Not  by  Slavery,  but  in  spite  of 
it,  was  independence  achieved.  Not  because,  but  notwithstanding, 
there  were  "  slave-holding  communities,"  did  triumph  descend  upon  our 
arms.  It  was  the  inspiration  of  Liberty  Universal  that  conducted  us 
through  the  Red  Sea  of  the  Revolution,  as  it  had  already  given  to  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  its  mighty  tone,  resounding  through  the 
ages.  "Let  it  be  remembered,"  said  the  nation,  speaking  by  the  voice 
of  the  Continental  Congress,  at  the  close  of  the  war,  "that  it  has  ever 
been  the  pride  and  boast  of  America,  that  the  rights  for  which  she  has 
contended  WERE  THE  RIGHTS  OF  HUMAN  NATURE!"  Yes,  sir,  in 
this  behalf,  and  by  this  sign,  we  conquered. 

Such,  sir,  is  my  answer  on  this  head  to  the  Senator  from  South  Caro 
lina.  If  the  work  which  I  undertook  has  been  done  thoroughly,  he 
must  not  blame  me.  Whatever  I  undertake,  I  am  apt  to  do  thoroughly. 
But  while  thus  repelling  the  insinuations  against  Massachusetts,  and  the 
assumptions  for  Slavery,  I  would  not  unnecessarily  touch  the  sensibili 
ties  of  that  Senator,  or  of  the  State  which  he  represents.  I  cannot 
forget  that,  amidst  all  diversities  of  opinion,  we  are  bound  together  by 
the  ties  of  a  common  country — that  Massachusetts  and  South  Carolina 
are  sister  States,  and  that  the  concord  of  sisters  ought  to  prevail  be 
tween  them  ;  but  I  am  constrained  to  declare,  that  throughout  this  de 
bate  I  have  sought  in  vain  any  token  of  that  just  spirit  which,  within 
the  sphere  of  its  influence,  is  calculated  to  promote  the  concord  of 
States  or  of  individuals. 

Such,  Mr.  President,  is  my  response  to  all  that  has  been  said — in 
this  debate — so  far  as  I  deem  it  in  any  way  worthy  of  attention.  To 
the  two  associate  chieftains  in  this  personal  assault,  the  veteran  Senator 
from  Virginia,  and  the  Senator  from  South  Carolina  with  the  silver- white 
locks,  I  have  replied  completely.  It  is  true  that  others  have  joined  in 
the  cry,  which  these  associates  first  started ;  but  I  shall  not  be  tempted 


THE   CRIME  AGAINST  KANSAS.  245 

further.     Some  there  are  who  are  best  answered  by  silence ;  best  an 
swered  by  withholding  the  words  which  leap  impulsively  to  the  lips. 

And  now,  turning  my  back  upon  these  things,  let  me,  as  I  close, 
dwell  on  a  single  aspect  of  this  discussion  which  will  render  it  memo 
rable.  On  former  occasions  like  this,  the  right  of  petition  has  been 
vehemently  assailed,  or  practically  denied.  Only  two  years  ago,  me 
morials  for  the  repeal  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  presented  by  me, 
were  laid  on  your  table,  Mr.  President,  without  reference  to  any  Com 
mittee.  All  is  changed  now.  Senators  have  condemned  the  memo 
rial,  and  sounded  the  cry  of  "treason,"  "treason,"  in  our  ears;  but 
thus  far,  throughout  this  excited  debate,  no  person  has  so  completely 
outraged  the  spirit  of  our  institutions,  or  forgotten  himself,  as  to  per 
severe  in  objecting  to  the  reception  of  the  memorial,  and  its  proper 
reference.  It  is  true,  the  remonstrants  and  their  representatives  here 
have  been  treated  with  indignity ;  but  the  great  right  of  petition — the 
sword  and  buckler,  of  the  citizen — though  thus  discredited,  has  not 
been  denied.  Here,  sir,  is  a  triumph  for  Freedom. 

L. 

THE  CRIME  AGAINST  KANSAS,  the  most  powerful  of 
all  Mr.  SUMNER'S  speeches,  will  always  be  associated 
with  the  infamous  attempt  to  murder  him  in  the  Senate 
Chamber,  two  days  after  its  delivery.  In  giving"  an 
account  of  the  assault,  we  shall  follow  the  relation  of  it 
by  Vice-President  WILSON,  as  it  will  appear  in  the 
second  volume  of  his  "  History  of  the  Rise  and  Fall  of 
the  Slave  Power  in  America,"  for  an  early  copy  of  which 
we  are  indebted  to  the  friendship  of  the  author. 

In  addition  to  the  well-known  accuracy  of  Mr.  WILSON 
as  a  public  writer,  he  had  the  further  advantage  in  this 
case,  of  being  on  the  spot  when  this  most  cowardly  act 
in  the  history  of  modern  civilization,  was  perpetrated. 

LI. 

The  spring  of  1856,  he  remarks,  by  way  of  preface,  had  opened 
glojinily.  The  Kansas-Nebraska  legislation  was  bringing  forth  its 


246  VICE-PRESIDENT   WILSON'S   ACCOUNT. 

legitimate  fruits.  Emboldened  by  their  success,  the  slavery  propa 
gandists  pressed  on  with  vigor,  resolved  that  no  obstacles  should  pre 
vent  the  realization  of  their  cherished  purposes.  In  Kansas  the  friends 
of  freedom  found  that  the  pretended  proffer  of  popular  sovereignty 
was  a  delusion,  and  they  were  at  once  precipitated  into  a  hand-to-hand 
conflict.  Treason  was  on  many  lips,  and  the  cry  of  secession  not  only 
rung  in  the  halls  of  Congress  but  resounded  throughout  the  South. 
Distrusting,  too,  their  ability  to  meet  their  opponents  in  the  fair  field  of 
debate,  the  advocates  of  slavery  resolved  to  resort  to  something  more 
potent  than  words.  If  they  could  not  rebut  the  speech  they  could  in 
timidate  and  overpower  the  speaker,  and  the  bludgeon  be  made  to 
accomplish  what  fair  argument  could  not  effect.  The  border  ruffian 
policy  which  was  filling  Kansas  with  alarm  and  bloodshed  had  its  repre 
sentatives  in  Washington,  walking  its  streets,  hanging  around  its  hotels 
and  stalking  through  the  Capitol.  To  the  extreme  arrogance  of  embit 
tered  and  aggressive  words  were  added  the  menace  and  actual  infliction 
of  personal  violence.  Indeed,  the  course  of  these  men  assumed  the 
form  of  a  reckless  and  relentless  audacity  never  before  exhibited. 
Members  of  Congress  went  armed  in  the  streets  and  sat  with  loaded 
revolvers  in  their  desks. 

It  was  in  this  state  of  popular  feeling  and  during  the  debate  on 
Kansas  affairs  that  Mr.  Sumner  delivered,  on  the  i9th  and  2oth  of  May, 
his  speech  on  the  "  Crime  against  Kansas."  It  was  marked  by  the 
usual  characteristics  of  his  more  elaborate  efforts,  exhibiting  great 
affluence  of  learning,  faithful  research  and  great  rhetorical  finish  and 
force.  It  was,  in  the  words  of  Whittier,  "  a  grand  and  terrible  philippic, 
worthy  of  the  great  occasion  ;  the  severe  and  awful  truth,  which  the 
sharp  agony  of  the  national  crisis  demanded."  The  speech  bore  the 
marks  of  a  determined  purpose  to  make  it  exhaustive  and  complete  ; 
as  impregnable  in  argument  and  cogent  in  rhetoric  as  it  could  be  made 
by  the  materials  at  his  command,  and  by  the  author's  acknowledged 
ability  to  use  them.-  He  summoned  largely  to  his  aid  the  power  of 
language,  and  his  "  words  "  became  "  things." 

He  divided  his  subject  into  "three  different  heads:  THE  CRIME 
AGAINST  KANSAS  in  its  origin  and  extent  ;  THE  APOLOGIES  FOR  THE 
CRIME  ;  and  THE  TRUE  REMEDV."  Concerning  the  crime  itself,  he  ad 
duced  the  most  incontrovertible  proofs  of  its  existence,  and  closed  by 
comparing  Kansas,  to  a  "gallant  ship,  voyaging  on  a  pleasant  summer 
sea,  assailed  by  a  pirate  crew."  "  Even  now,"  he  said,  "  the  black  flag 


ANALYSIS   OF   THE   SPEECH.  247 

of  the  land  pirates  of  Missouri  waves  at  the  masthead  ;  in  their  laws 
you  hear  the  pirate  yell  and  see  the  flash  of  the  pirate  knife  ;  while,  in 
credible  to  relate,  the  President,  gathering  the  slave  power  at  his  back, 
testifies  a  pirate  sympathy."  He  said  the  apologies  were  four  in 
number:  the  apology  "  tyrannical,"  the  apology  "imbecile,"  the  apo 
logy  "absurd,"  and  the  apology  "infamous."  "This  is  all,"  he  said. 
"  Tyranny,  imbecility,  absurdity  and  infamy  all  unite  to  dance,  like  the 
weird  sisters,  about  this  crime."  Concerning  the  remedies,  he  said 
they,  too,  were  "fourfold"  :  the  remedy  of  "tyranny,"  of  "folly,"  of 
"injustice  and  civil  war,"  of  "justice  and  peace."  "These  are  the 
four  caskets,"  he  said,  "  and  you  are  to  determine  which  shall  be 
opened  by  Senatorial  votes."  Having  discussed  these  points  with  great 
fulness  and  cogency,  he  thus  closed  :  "The  contest,  which,  beginning 
in  Kansas,  reaches  us,  will  be  transferred  soon  from  Congress  to  that 
broader  stage  where  every  citizen  is  not  only  spectator,  but  actor  ;  and 
to  their  judgment  I  confidently  turn.  *  *  *  In  the  name  of  the  Con 
stitution  outraged,  of  the  laws  trampled  down,  of  humanity  degraded, 
of  peace  destroyed,  of  freedom  crushed  to  earth,  and  in  the  name  of 
the  Heavenly  Father,  whose  service  is  perfect  freedom,  I  -make  this 
last  appeal." 

Portraying  the  crime,  he  referred  to  the  criminal,  fitly  spoke  of  the 
tyrant  power  who  inspired  it,  and  of  the  more  prominent  agents  in  its 
commission.  Alluding  to  a  fable  of  northern  mythology,  he  said  : 
"Even  so  the  creature  whose  paws  are  fastened  upon  Kansas,  whatever 
it  may  seem  to  be,  constitutes  in  reality  part  of  the  slave  power,  which, 
with  loathsome  folds,  is  now  coiled  about  the  whole  land." 

Of  several  of  the  agents  of  this  power  he  had  more  than  general 
reasons  to  speak  severely.  Among  them  were  Mr.  Butler  and  Mr. 
Douglas,  who  had  singled  him  out  for  special  attack.  In  this  speech, 
therefore,  he  took  occasion  to  repay  them  for  their  assaults,  and  pro 
posed  to  say  "  something  in  reference  to  what  has  fallen  from  Senators 
who  have  raised  themselves  to  eminence  on  this  floor  in  championship 
of  human  wrongs.  I  mean  the  Senator  from  South  Carolina  and  the 
Senator  from  Illinois,  who  though  unlike  as  Don  Quixote  and  Sancho 
Panza,  yet,  like  this  couple,  sally  forth  in  the  same  adventure."  Of  the 
former  he  spoke  as  "  one  applying  opprobrious  epithets  to  those  who 
differ  from- him  on  this  floor,  calling  them  'sectional'  and  'fanatical,' 
and  their  opposition  to  the  usurpations  in  Kansas  'an  uncalculating 


248  ASSAULT   ON   SUMXER. 

fanaticism  ! "  Of  the  latter  he  said  :  "The  Senator  dreams  that  he  can 
subdue  the  North.  He  disclaims  the  open  threat ;  but  his  conduct 
implies  it.  How  little  that  Senator  knows  himself,  or  the  strength  of 
the  cause  he  persecutes  !  He  is  but  a  mortal  man  ;  but  against  him  is 
an  immortal  principle.  With  finite  strength  he  wrestles  with  the 
infinite,  and  he  must  fail ;  against  him  are  stronger  battalions  than  any 
marshalled  by  mortal  arm, — the  inborn,  ineradicable,  and  invincible 
sentiments  of  the  human  heart ;  against  him  is  Nature  in  all  its  subtle 
forces ;  against  him  is  God.  Let  him  try  to  subdue  these." 


LII. 

A  speech  so  bold  and  unsparing  in  its  utterances,  so  thorough  and 
fundamental  in  its  logic,  in  which  things  were  called  by  their  right 
names,  and  which  applied  the  tests  of  Republican  and  Christian  prin 
ciples  so  severely  to  the  vexed  question,  while,  at  the  same  time,  it 
administered  to  some  of  the  haughty  and  dogmatic  leaders  that  severe 
rebuke  their  insolence  deserved,  could  not  fail,  in  the  excited  state  of 
the  public  mind,  to  produce  a  profound  impression.  Men  whose 
course  had  been  subjected  to  this  terrible  arraignment  were  excited  to 
madness ;  and  summary  vengeance  was  agreed  upon  as  the  only 
remedy  that  would  meet  the  exigency  of  the  hour. 

Preston  S.  Brooks,  a  Representative  from  South  Carolina,  either 
volunteered  or  was  selected  as  the  agent  for  its  infliction.  After  the 
adjournment  of  the  Senate  on  the  22d  of  May,  Mr.  Simmer  remained 
at  his  desk  engaged  in  writing.  While  so  engaged,  Brooks,  whom  he 
did  not  know,  approached  him  and  said :  "I  have  read  your  speech 
twice  over,  carefully.  It  is  a  libel  on  South  Carolina  and  Mr.  Butler, 
who  is  a  relative  of  mine."  While  these  words  were  passing  from  his 
lips  he  commenced  a  series  of  blows  with  a  bludgeon  upon  the  Senator's 
head,  by  which  the  latter  was  stunned,  disabled  and  smitten  down, 
bleeding  and  insensible,  on  the  floor  of  the  chamber.  From  that  floor 
he  was  taken  by  friends,  borne  to  the  ante-room,  where  his  wounds 
were  dressed,  and  then  he  was  carried  by  Mr.  Wilson,  assisted  by 
Captain  Darling,  door-keeper  of  the  House,  faint  and  bleeding,  to  his 
lodgings. 

This  cowardly  and  audacious  assault  deeply  moved  the  public  mind; 


MEETING  AT   SEWARB'S   HOUSE.  249 

not  only  at  Washington,  but  throughout  the  country,  though  the  per 
sonal  participants  therein,  the  criminal  and  his  victim,  were  very  much 
lost  sight  of  in  the  moral  and  political  significance  of  the  act.  For  the 
moment  Sumner  and  Brooks  were  regarded  mainly  as  representative 
men,  exponents  of  the  two  civilizations  which  divided  the  country, 
while  the  scenes  on  the  22d  of  May  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate  were 
looked  upon  as  typical  of  what  was  being  enacted  on  the  wider  theatre 
of  the  nation.  Mr.  Sumner,  though  confessedly  the  superior  of  his 
assailant  in  stature  and  physical  strength,  sitting  and  cramped  beneath 
his  writing  desk,  over  which  he  was  bending,  with  pen  in  hand,  taken 
unawares  and  at  disadvantage,  and  his  assailant  raining  blows  upon  his 
unprotected  head,  fairly  represented  freedom  and  slavery  as  they  stood 
at  that  time  confronting  each  other.  Freedom,  though  intrinsically 
stronger  than  its  antagonist,  was  yet  practically  weaker.  So  hampered 
by  the  compromises  of  the  Constitution,  by  the  legislation  of  two 
generations,  by  proscription  and  prescription,  and  by  the  overpowering 
advantage  which  actual  possession  gave  to  slavery,  it  had  been  obliged 
to  succumb  to  its  imperious  antagonist,  besides  suffering  infinite  damage 
thereby.  This  blow  at  free  speech,  and  personal  safety  as  well,  like  a 
flash  of  lightning  in  a  dark  and  stormy  night,  revealed  by  its  lurid  glare 
the  grim  facts  of  the  situation,  and  the  people,  for  good  reason,  trem 
bled  as  they  gazed  apprehensively  into  the  immediate  and  more  remote 
future. 

LIII. 

In  the  evening  of  the  day  of  the  assault,  the  Republican  Senators 
met  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Seward.  In  a  lean  minority — only  one-fifth  of 
the  Senate — they  knew  that  they  were  at  the  mercy  of  the  majority, 
which  was  dominated  by  the  incensed  and  inexorable  leaders  of  the 
Slave  Power.  Always  bitter  and  implacable,  they  were  now  still  more 
determined  and  audacious.  Always  zealous,  their  zeal  was  more  in 
flamed  by  the  fresh  fuel  these  proceedings  would  add.  What  new  vic 
tims  would  be  required,  who  they  should  be,  and  whom  their  appetite 
for  vengeance,  whetted  by  this  taste  of  blood,  would  select,  they  knew 
not.  Not  unlikely  some  who  gathered  there,  like  the  disciples  of  John 
the  Baptist,  after  their  master  had  fallen  a  victim  to  a  tyrant's  power, 
felt  that,  though  the  night  was  dark  and  the  future  was  forbidding,  it 
was  no  time  to  despair  or  to  remit  effort.  Nor  would  they,  without 
remonstrance,  submit  to  such  an  invasion  of  their  personal  and  politi- 


250  A   COMMITTEE   OF   INQUIRY. 

cal  rights.  It  was  accordingly  agreed  that  Mr.  Wilson  should  call  the 
attention  of  the  Senate  to  the  subject  the  next  day,  and,  unless  some 
member  of  the  dominant  party  should  move  a  committee  of  investiga 
tion,  Mr.  Seward  should  make  such  motion. 

On  the  assembling  of  the  Senate,  amid  deep  excitement,  crowds 
filling  every  available  space  in  the  Chamber  and  all  its  approaches, 
Mr.  Wilson  rose,  and  having  narrated  briefly  the  facts  of  the  transac 
tion,  said  :  "Sir,  to  assail  a  member  of  the  Senate  out  of  this  Chamber 
*  for  words  spoken  in  debate '  is  a  grave  offence,  not  only  against  the 
rights  of  a  Senator,  but  the  constitutional  privileges  of  this  House  ;  but, 
sir,  to  come  into  this  Chamber  and  assault  a  member  in  his  seat,  until 
he  falls  exhausted  and  senseless  on  this  floor,  is  an  offence  requiring 
the  prompt  and  decisive  action  of  the  Senate.  Senators,  I  have  called 
your  attention  to  this  transaction.  I  submit  no  motion.  I  leave  it  to 
older  Senators,  whose  character,  whose  position  in  this  body  and  before 
the  country,  eminently  fit  them  for  the  task  of  devising  measures  to  re 
dress  the  wrongs  of  a  member  of  this  body  and  to  vindicate  the  honor 
and  dignity  of  the  Senate." 

As  no  Democratic  Senator  proposed  any  action,  Mr.  Seward  offered 
a  resolution  for  a  committee  of  five  members,  to  be  appointed  by  the 
President,  to  inquire  into  the  assault  and  to  report  the  facts,  together  with 
their  opinion  thereon.  On  motion  of  Mr.  Mason,  the  resolution  was 
so  amended  as  to  provide  that  the  committee  should  be  ch6sen  by  the 
Senate  ;  and  Pearce  of  Maryland,  Cass  of  Michigan,  Dodge  of  Wis 
consin,  Allen  of  Rhode  Island  and  Geyer  of  Missouri,  were  selected. 
The  committee  was  chosen  wholly  from  the  Democratic  party,  and 
contained  no  one  friendly  to  Mr.  Simmer.  The  same  day,  Lewis  D. 
Campbell  introduced  a  resolution  into  the  House  of  Representatives 
reciting  the  particulars  of  the  assault,  and  proposing  a  select  committee 
of  five  to  report  such  action  as  might  be  proper  for  the  vindication  of 
the  House.  After  a  brief  debate,  the  resolution  was  adopted,  and 
Campbell  of  Ohio,  Pennington  of  New  Jersey,  Spinner  of  New  York, 
Cobb  of  Georgia  and  Greenwood  of  Arkansas  were  appointed. 


LIV. 

This  assault  upon  Mr.  Simmer  was,  however,  chiefly  noticeable  for 
its  related  facts  and  subsequent  developments.     Standing  alone,  it  was 


BEHAVIOR   OF   SENATORS.  25  I 

but  one  of  many  outrages  which  have  disfigured  and  disgraced  human 
history,  as  indefensible  as  they  were  full  of  pain  and  peril, — one  good 
man  suffering  at  the  hands  of  a  bad  man  from  the  impulse  of  passion 
or  the  greed  of  gain.  But,  standing  as  it  does  in  its  relations  to  the 
irrepressible  conflict  between  freedom  and  slavery,  it  was  a  revelation 
of  a  state  of  public  feeling  and  sentiment,  especially  at  the  South,  which 
both  startled  and  surprised  the  nation  and  the  world  ;  though  it  has 
since  lost  much  of  its  special  significance,  looked  at  by  the  side  of  the 
more  horrible  demonstrations  of  rebellion  and  civil  war.  Thus  con 
sidered,  it  shows  Mr.  Brooks  as  only  a  fit  representative  of  the  domi 
nating  influences  of  the  slaveholding  States,  where  not  only  did  their 
leading  public  men  and  presses  indorse  the  deed  as  their  own,  and 
defend  it  by  voice  and  vote,  but  the  people  generally  seemed  ready  to 
vie  with  each  other  in  their  professed  admiration  of  his  course,  so  that 
the  bludgeon  became  the  weapon  of  honor,  the  bully  the  hero  of  the 
hour. 

The  committee  reported  want  of  jurisdiction,  because,  it  contended, 
"authority  devolves  solely  upon  the  House,  of  which  he  is  a  member," 
and  the  Senate  itself  took  no  further  action.  The  House  committee 
entered  at  once  upon  the  investigation,  and  proceeded  to  examine  the 
witnesses  of  the  transaction.  Visiting  Mr.  Simmer  at  his  room,  they 
took  his  deposition  from  his  sick-bed.  He  made  substantially  the  same 
statement  already  given,  mentioning  the  additional  fact  that  on  coming 
to  consciousness  he  saw  "  Mr.  Douglas  and  Mr.  Toombs  standing  in 
the  Senate,"  and  Mr.  Slidell  in  the  anteroom,  from  which  the  latter 
"retreated  at  once."  This  statement  becoming  known,  these  Senators 
felt  called  upon  to  make  explanations  of  their  knowledge  of  the  affair 
and  of  the  course  they  adopted  in  relation  to  it.  Mr.  Slidell,  referring 
to  the  fact  that  he  was  conversing  with  other  Senators,  among  whom 
was  Mr.  Douglas,  when  a  messenger  rushed  in  with  the  intelligence 
that  somebody  was  beating  Mr.  Sumner,  contemptuously  said :  "We 
heard  this  remark  without  any  particular  emotion.  For  my  part,  I  con 
fess  I  felt  none.  I  am  not  disposed  to  participate  in  broils  of  any  kind. 
I  remained  very  quietly  in  my  seat.  The  other  gentleman  did  the 
same.  We  did  not  move."  He  stated  that,  a  few  minutes  afterward, 
he  went  into  the  Senate  Chamber,  and  was  told  that  Mr.  Sumner  was 
lying  in  a  state  of  insensibility.  Returning  to  the  anteroom,  and 
attempting  to  pass  out,  he  saw  the  wounded  man  as  he  was  carried  into 
the  anteroom,  "  his  face  covered  with  blood,  and  evidently  faint  and 


252  TOOMBS  JUSTIFIES   BROOKS. 

weak."  "  I  am  not,"  said  Mr.  Slidell,  "  particularly  fond  of  scenes  of 
any  sort.  I  have  no  associations  or  relations  of  any  kind  with  Mr. 
Simmer.  I  have  not  spoken  to  him  for  two  years.  I  did  not  think  it 
necessary  to  express  any  sympathy  or  make  any  advances  toward  him." 
Slidell  closed  his  remarks  by  saying  he  was  free  from  any  participation, 
connection,  or  counsel  in  the  matter. 

Douglas,  too,  deemed  it  his  duty  to  make  some  explanation.  He  said 
that  when  the  messenger  passed  through  the  room  and  said  somebody 
was  beating  Mr.  Sumner,  "  I  rose  immediately  to  my  feet.  My  first 
impulse  was  to  come  into  the  Senate  Chamber  and  help  to  put  an  end 
to  the  affray  if  I  could.  But  it  occurred  to  my  mind  in  an  instant  that 
my  relations  to  Mr.  Sumner  were  such  that  if  I  came  into  the  hall  my 
motives  would  be  misconstrued  perhaps,  and  I  sat  down  again."  He 
stated  that  a  few  moments  afterwards  he  went  into  the  Senate  Chamber 
and  saw  the  crowd  gathering  about  Mr.  Sumner,  who  was  prostrate  on  the 
floor.  He  closed  his  remarks  by  stating  he  did  not  know  that  he 
was  in  the  Capitol ;  that  he  did  not  know  that  any  man  thought  of 
attacking  him,  and  that  he  had  not  the  slightest  suspicion  of  what  was 
to  happen. 

Mr.  Toombs  said  :  "As  for  rendering  Mr.  Sumner  any  assistance,  I 
did  not  do  it.  As  to  what  was  said,  some  gentleman  present  condemn 
ed  it  in  Mr.  Brooks.  I  stated  to  him,  or  to  some  of  my  own  friends, 
probably,  that  I  approved  it.  That  is  my  opinion."  It  was  also  given 
in  evidence  that  Mr.  Keitt  was  present  at  the  assault,  not  only  con 
senting  to  the  action  of  his  colleague,  but  with  violent  demonstrations 
and  profane  expressions  warning  off  all  who  would  interfere  to  save  the 
victim  from  his  assailant. 

Of  course,  Northern  men  could  not  remain  unmoved  by  such  admitted 
complicity  with  and  indorsement  of  an  outrage  like  that.  Mr.  Wade  said  : 
"  It  is  impossible  for  me  to  sit  still  and  hear  the  principle  announced 
which  I  have  heard  on  this  occasion.  I  am  here  in  a  pretty  bare  mino 
rity  ;  but  when  I  hear,  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate,  that  an  assassin-like, 
cowardly  attack  has  been  made  on  a  man  unarmed,  having  no  power  to 
defend  himself,  who  was  stricken  down  with  the  strong  arm  and  almost 
murdered,  and  that  such  attacks  are  approved  of  by  Senators,  it  becomes 
a  question  of  some  interest  to  us  all,  and  especially  to  those  who  are 
in  the  minority.  A  brave  man  may  be  overpowered  by  numbers  on  this 


BROOKS   CHALLENGES   WILSON.  253 

floor  ;  but,  sir,  overpowered  or  not,  live  or  die,  I  will  vindicate  the  right 
and  liberty  of  debate  and  freedom  of  discussion  upon  this  floor  so  long 
as  I  live." 

Mr.  Wilson  remarked  that  there  was  no  conflict  between  the  state 
ments  of  Mr.  Sumner  and  those  of  Slidell,  Douglas  and  Toombs.  The 
assault  itself  he  pronounced  "brutal,  murderous  and  cowardly."  This 
provoked  the  exclamation  "  You  are  a  liar  !  "  from  Mr.  Butler;  although, 
at  the  request  of  Senators,  he  immediately  withdrew  the  words.  The 
charge  of  Mr.  Wilson  led  to  a  challenge  from  Mr.  Brooks,  which  was 
borne  to  him  by  General  Lane  of  Oregon,  afterward  Democratic  can 
didate  for  the  Vice-Presidency.  Mr.  Wilson,  against  the  urgent  advice 
of  Mr.  Giddings,  Mr.  Colfax  and  other  friends,  immediately  returned 
this  reply  : 

"  I  characterized,  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate,  the  assault  upon  my 
colleague  as  '  brutal,  murderous  and  cowardly.'  I  thought  so  then. 
I  think  so  now.  I  have  no  qualification  whatever  to  make  in  regard  to 
those  words.  I  have  never  entertained,  in  the  Senate  or  elsewhere,  the 
idea  of  personal  responsibility  in  the  sense  of  the  duellist.  I  have  always 
regarded  duelling  as  the  lingering  relic  of  a  barbarous  civilization,  which 
the  law  of  the  country  has  branded  as  crime.  While,  therefore,  I  re 
ligiously  believe  in  the  right  of  self-defence  in  its  broadest  sense,  the 
law  of  my  country  and  the  matured  convictions  of  my  whole  life  alike 
forbid  me  to  meet  you  for  the  purpose  indicated  in  your  letter." 

Having  sent  this  reply  by  James  Baffin  ton,  a  member  of  the  House 
from  his  State,  Mr.  Wilson  telegraphed  to  his  wife,  then  in  Massachu 
setts  :  "  Have  declined  to  fight  a  duel,  shall  do  my  duty  and  leave  the 
result  with  God.  If  assailed,  shall  defend  my  life,  if  possible,  at  any 
cost.  Be  calm."  Writing  a  hurried  note  to  his  friends,  William  Claflin, 
afterward  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  and  John  -B.  Alley,  subsequently 
for  several  years  a  member  of  Congress,  to  befriend  his  son,  then  only- 
ten  years  of  age,  if  he  should  be  struck  down  by  violence,  Mr.  Wilson 
armed  himself  for  defence,  resolved  to  go  where  duty  called.  At  once  a 
meeting  was  held  at  the  National  Hotel  by  a  few  Southern  members, 
and  the  question  of  making  an  assault  upon  him  considered  ;  and  actual 
violence  was  prevented  mainly  by  the  efforts  of  Mr.  Orr  of  South 
Carolina,  as  he  informed  Mr.  Wilson  in  the  winter  of  1873,  when  on  his 
way  to  Russia  as  Minister  of  the  United  States. 


254  BROOKS   EXPELLED — KEITT   RESIGNS. 

LV. 

The  House  committee  made  two  reports  ;  the  majority  recommend 
ing  the  expulsion  of  Mr.  Brooks,  and  expressing  "disapprobation  of  the 
act  of  Henry  A.  Edmonson  and  Lawrence  M.  Keitt."  The  minority, 
pleading  want  of  jurisdiction,  gave  sixty-six  votes  for  the  minority 
report.  The  House  censured  Keitt,  but  failed  to  condemn  Edmonson. 
Keitt  resigned.  One  hundred  and  twenty-one  members  voted  to  expel 
Brooks  and  ninety -five  voted  against  expulsion.  Having  failed  to  expel 
— a  two -thirds  vote  being  necessary — a  vote  of  censure  was  adopted  by 
a  large  majority. 

After  these  votes  were  declared,  Mr.  Brooks  addressed  the  House  in 
a  speech  of  mingled  assumption,  insolence  and  self-conceit.  While  dis 
claiming  all  intention  to  insult  Congress,  the  Senate  or  the  State  of  Mas 
sachusetts,  he  seemed  to  be  utterly  oblivious  that. there  had  been  any 
infringement  of  law  or  the  rights  of  others  ;  it  being  simply,  he  said,  "  a 
personal  affair,  for  which  I  am  personally  responsible."  With  infinite 
effrontery  he  affirmed  :  "  I  went  to  work  very  deliberately,  as  I  am 
charged — and  this  is  admitted — and  speculated  somewhat  as  to  whether 
I  should  employ  a  horsewhip  or  a  cowhide  ;  but  knowing  that  the  Sen 
ator  was  my  superior  in  strength,  it  occurred  to  me  that  he  might  wrest 
it  from  my  hand,  and  then  (for  I  never  attempt  anything  I  do  not  per 
form)  I  might  have  been  compelled  to  do  that  which  I  would  have  re 
gretted  the  balance  of  my  natural  life."  What  that  contingency  he  so 
coolly  admitted  was,  every  reader  can  conjecture.  With  still  greater  as 
surance  and  self-assertion,  he  claimed,  as  a  matter  of  credit  for  his  for 
bearance,  that  he  had  not  plunged  the  nation  into  civil  war,  as  if  he  had 
held  the  destinies  of  the  Republic  in  his  hands.  "  In  my  heart  of 
hearts,"  he  said,  "  such  a  menacing  line  of  conduct  I  believe  would  end 
in  subverting  this  government  and  drenching  this  hall  in  blood.  No  act 
of  mine,  on  my  personal  account,  shall  inaugurate  revolution ;  but  when 
you,  Mr.  Speaker,  return  to  your  own  home,  and  hear  the  people  of  the 
great  North — and  they  are  a  great  people — speak  of  me  as  a  bad  man, 
you  will  do  me  the  justice  to  say  that  a  blow  struck  by  me  at  this  time 
would  be  followed  by  a  revolution  ;  and  this  I  know."  Concluding  his 
speech,  he  announced  the  resignation  of  his  seat,  and  walked  out  of  the 
House.  He  returned  to  his  constituents,  was  triumphantly  re-elected, 
in  about  two  weeks  went  back  with  his  commission  of  re-election,  and 
again  took  his  seat. 


THE  SOUTH  ENDORSES  BROOKS.  2$ 5 


LVI. 

But  the  most  significant  and  instructive  incidents  and  utterances  re 
main  to  be  noted.  Much  of  what  has  already  been  adduced  might  be 
safely  referred  to  passion,  wounded  feeling  and  inflamed  hatred.  The 
language  of  Slidell,  Douglas,  Toombs  and  Brooks,  was  evidently  spoken 
in  hot  blood,  and  the  votes  of  Mr.  Brooks's  constituents  were  cast  in 
obedience  to  feelings  that  had  been  roused  to  the  highest  pitch  of  em 
bittered  and  vengeful  indignation.  No  adequate  conception  of  the  state 
of  public  sentiment  and  feeling  then  existing  can  be  found  without  re 
ference  to  the  cooler  and  more  deliberate  expressions  of  public  men  and 
presses  outside  of  the  narrow  circle  of  the  immediate  actors  in  this 
tragedy  of  violence  and  blood.  Unfortunately  the  evidence  is  far  too 
conclusive  to  leave  any  doubt  as  to  the  anarchical  sentiments  that  pre 
vailed  too  generally  at  the  South,  and  far  too  largely,  indeed,  at  the 
North. 

Referring  to  a  meeting  of  Brooks's  constituents,  at  which  resolutions 
of  approval  were  adopted,  and  a  cane,  with  a  brutal  inscription,  voted 
him,  a  paper  published  at  the  capital  of  the  State  remarked  :  "  Meetings 
of  approval  and  sanction  will  be  held  not  only  in  Mr.  Brooks's  district, 
but  throughout  the  State  at  large,  and  a  general  and  hearty  response  of 
approval  will  re-echo  the  words  '  well  done  ! '  from  Washington  to  the 
Rio  Grande."  The  students  and  officers  of  the  University  of  Virginia 
also  voted  him  a  cane,  on  which  the  leading  Democratic  organ  of  the 
South  remarked  approvingly  :  "  The  chivalry  of  the  South,  it  seems, 
has  been  thoroughly  aroused."  The  Richmond  Examiner  said  :  :'  Far 
from  blarning  Mr.  Brooks,  we  are  disposed  to  regard  him  as  a  conserva 
tive  gentleman,  seeking  to  restore  its  lost  dignity  to  the  Senate,  *  *  * 
whose  example  should  be  followed  by  every  Southern  gentleman  whose 
feelings  are  outraged  by  unprincipled  Abolitionists."  The  Richmond 
Enquirer,  some  weeks  after  the  assault,  said  :  "  In  the  main,  the  press 
of  the  South  applaud  the  conduct  of  Mr.  Brooks,  without  condition  or 
limitation.  Our  approbation,  at  least,  is  entire  and  unreserved.  *  *  * 
It  was  a  proper  act,  done  at  the  proper  time  and  in  the  proper  place." 

Nor  were  leading  statesmen  less  explicit  in  their  approval.  Mr. 
Mason,  in  reply  to  an  invitation  to  attend  a  public  dinner  in  honor  of 
Mr.  Brooks,  after  referring  to  his  "  social  and  political  intercourse  "  with 


256  BUCHANAN   APPROVES  THE   ASSAULT. 

their  "able  and  justly  honored  representative,"  adds  :  "  I  know  of  none 
whose  public  career  I  hold  more  worthy  the  full  and  cordial  approba 
tion  of  his  constituents  than  his."  Jefferson  Davis,  on  the  same  occa 
sion,  wrote  :  "  I  have  only  to  express  to  you  my  sympathy  with  the 
feeling  which  prompts  the  sons  of  Carolina  to  welcome  the  return  of  a 
brother  who  has  been  the  subject  of  vilification,  misrepresentation,  and 
persecution,  because  he  resented  a  libellous  assault  upon  the  represen 
tative  of  their  mother."  Nor  were  they  alone  Southern  men  who  joined 
in  this  formal  indorsement.  Mr.  Buchanan,  the  Democratic  candidate 
for  the  Presidency,  referring  to  Mr.  Simmer's  speech,  characterized  it  as 
"  the  most  vulgar  tirade  of  abuse  ever  delivered  in  a  representative 
body  ;  "  and  added  that  though  "  Mr.  Brooks  was  inconsiderate,  *  *  * 
Senator  Butler  was  a  very  mild  man." 

Mr.  Savage  of  Tennessee,  in  a  eulogy  in  the  House,  said  :  "To  die 
nobly  is  life's  chief  concern.  History  records  but  one  Thermopylae  ; 
there  ought  to  have  been  another,  and  that  one  for  Preston  S.  Brooks. 
*  *  *  So  shall  the  scene  in  the  Senate  chamber  carry  the  name  of 
the  deceased  to  all  future  generations,  long  to  be  remembered  after  all 
men  are  forgotten  and  until  these  proud  walls  crumble  into  ruins."  So 
unmistakably  did  the  leading  minds  of  the  South  indorse  the  deed  and 
make  it  their  own. 

Nor,  on  the  other  hand,  were  the  men  of  the  North  silent.  The 
thrill  of  horror  and  alarm  which  ran  through  the  free  States  found 
expression,  as  with  fitting  phrase  and  indignant  emphasis  men  cha 
racterized  and  denounced  the  diabolical  and  cowardly  assault.  On  the 
floor  of  Congress  were  those  found  who,  at  much  personal  hazard, 
denounced  both  the  assault  and  the  assailant.  In  the  Hoifse,  John 
Woodruff  of  Connecticut,  a  man  proverbial  for  moderation  of  temper 
and  deportment,  said  :  "  If  honorable  gentlemen  cannot  wholly  rid 
themselves  of  an  unwelcome  presence,  they  can,  at  least,  show  their 
appreciation  of  an  action  wanting  few  of  the  elements  of  the  most 
audacious  crime  and  of  a  spirit  equal  to  deeds  that  I  will  not  name. 
With  an  endeavor  always  to  cultivate  courtesy,  I  shall  not  hesitate, 
here  in  my  place  or  elsewhere,  to  freely  characterize  as  they  deserve 
any  lofty  assumption  of  arrogance  or  any  mean  achievement  of 
cowardice."  For  these  words  he  was  waited  upon  and  interrogated 
whether  he  would  receive  a  challenge  from  Mr.  Brooks.  He,  however, 
declined  to  receive  it. 


BURLING AME   DENOUNCES   THE   ASSAULT.  257 


LVII. 

Mr.  Burlingame,  afterwards  Plenipotentiary  to  China,  and  from  China 
to  the  Western  nations,  spoke  of  the  assault  with  boldness,  eloquence 
and  force.  "  I  denounce  it,"  he  said,  "  in  the  name  of  the  Con 
stitution  it  violates.  I  denounce  it  in  the  name  of  the  sovereignty  of 
Massachusetts,  which  was  stricken  down  by  the  blow.  I  denounce  it 
in  the  name  of  humanity.  I  denounce  it  in  the  name  of  civilization, 
which  it  outraged.  I  denounce  it  in  the  name  of  that  fair  play  which 
bullies  and  prize-fighters  respect.  The  Senator  from  Massachusetts 
sat  in  the  silence  of  the  Senate  Chamber,  engaged  in  the  employments 
appertaining  to  his  office,  when  a  member  from  the  House,  who  had 
taken  an  oath  to  sustain  the  Constitution,  stole  into  the  Senate,  a  place 
which  had  hitherto  been  held  sacred  against  violence,  and  smote  him, 
as  Cain  smote  his  brother."  Keitt  exclaimed  :  "  That  is  false."  Bur 
lingame  replied  :  "  I  will  not  bandy  epithets  with  the  gentleman.  I 
am  responsible  for  my  own  language  ;  doubtless  he  is  responsible  for 
his."  "  I  am,"  said  Keitt.  "  I  shall  stand  by  mine,"  replied  Bur 
lingame. 

Mr.  Comins,  the  other  Representative  from  Boston,  said  the 
murderous  blow  that  smote  down  Mr.  Sumner  was  "  the  representative 
of  a  power  that,  having  failed  to  sustain  itself  in  intellectual  conflict, 
resolves  itself  into  brute  force,  stalks  into  the  Senate  Chamber,  and 
there,  with  bludgeon  in  hand,  beats  freedom  over  the  head."  "  In  your 
arrogance,"  he  said,  "  you  assume  to  be  the  sole  and  rightful  judges  of 
parliamentary  decorum  and  parliamentary,  law.  We  tell  you  plainly, 
we  will  no  longer  submit  to  these  things."  This  language  gave  no 
little  offence  to  Brooks  and  his  friends,  but  they  took  no  action  con 
cerning  it. 

Brooks  felt  compelled,  however,  to  notice  Burlingame' s  speech. 
Several  days  after  its  delivery,  William  W.  Boyce  of  South  Carolina, 
and  Thomas  S.  Bocock  of  Virginia,  acting  for  Brooks,  met  in  con 
sultation  with  Speaker  Banks  and  George  Ashmun,  who  were  friends  of 
Burlingame,  with  a  view  of  arranging  the  matter  either  amicably  or 
otherwise.  Burlingame  was  present,  and  during  the  consultation  ex 
pressed  his  personal  regard  for  Brooks,  but  condemned  the  act 
committed  by  him.  This  nice  discrimination  between  the  actor  and 
17 


258  BROOKS'  CHALLENGE  ACCEPTED. 

the  act  was  seized  upon  by  the  friends  of  both  parties,  and  it  was  at 
once  agreed  that  the  affair  could  be  settled  upon  that  declaration. 
Though  the  parties  and  their  immediate  friends  were  satisfied,  others 
were  not.  The  arrangement  was  soon  the  subject  of  public  comment 
and  unfavorable  criticism.  Mr.  Burlingame  having  left  Washington 
to  enter  the  Presidential  canvass  in  the  West,  Mr.  Wilson  telegraphed 
him  to  return  immediately,  and  he  did  so.  On  his  return,  a  copy  of 
the  Boston  Courier  of  July  18,  containing  the  terms  of  settlement,  and 
an  article  severely  criticising  Mr.  Burlingame's  action,  was  placed  in 
his  hands  by  his  colleague,  Timothy  Davis.  He  immediately  declared 
to  Mr.  Davis  that  he  would  withdraw  the  whole  of  his  part  of  the 
settlement,  and  he  published  a  card  in  the  National  Intelligencer  of 
July  22,  in  which  he  placed  himself  upon  his  speech,  yielding  nothing 
and  retracting  nothing. 

Of  course,  Brooks  took  action  at  once,  and  sent  a  challenge  by  Gen. 
Joseph  Lane  of  Oregon.  It  was  promptly  accepted,  and  the  arrange 
ments  and  details  were  referred  to  Lewis  D.  Campbell  of  Ohio.  Bur- 
lingame  absented  himself  from  the  House,  remaining  the  most  of  the 
day  in  the  room  of  one  of  his  colleagues.  Early  in  the  evening  he 
met  and  walked  with  Mr.  Wilson  in  the  grounds  east  of  the  Capitol. 
He  then  expected  to  meet  Brooks  outside  of  the  District  the  next 
morning.  He  spoke  of  his  wife,  his  children  and  friends  at  home  ; 
and,  on  parting,  said:  "My  friend,  you  know  my  position  ;  I  want  you 
to  explain  my  conduct  to  my  friends,  a..d  to  defend  my  memory  if 
anything  happens  to  me."  Late  in  the  evening  he  met  Mr.  Davis  and 
walked  with  'him  in  the  park  near  the  City  Hall.  He  then,  at  that 
hour,  supposed  he  should  meet  Brooks  early  the  next  morning  ;  and 
he  confided  to  his  colleague  some  matters  to  be  used  in  case  he  should 
fall.  At  parting  he  remarked  :  "  I  do  not  hate  Brooks,  but  I  shall  kiu 
him." 

Mr.  Campbell,  who  wrote  the  reply  to  the  challenge,  decided  that  the 
meeting  should  be  held  near  the  Clifton  House  in  Canada,  and  sent 
Mr.  Burlingame,  late  in  the  night,  to  take  the  cars,  at  the  junction  in 
Maryland,  for  that  place.  But  Brooks  declined  to  meet  Burlingame  at 
the  place  designated,  on  the  alleged  ground  that,  in  the  then  excited 
state  of  public  feeling  at  the  North,  it  would  not  be  safe  for  him  to 
undertake  the  journey. 


VOICE   OF  FANEUIL   HALL.  259 

The  friends  of  freedom  generally  regretted  the  course  of  Mr.  Bur- 
lingame,  though  they  were  not  unmindful  of  the  salutary  influence  which 
such  a  response  was  calculated  to  exert  upon  men  who  had  depended 
largely  upon  the  unwillingness  of  Northern  men  to  adopt  their  self- 
styled  "code  of  honor."  Indeed,  he  himself  did  not  fully  indorse  the 
course  he  felt  constrained  to  adopt.  At  a  public  reception,  given  him 
in  Boston  on  the  i2th  of  September,  he  said:  "  My  errors,  if  errors 
they  were,  sprang  from  the  dim  light  in  which  I  stood  and  out  of  a 
sincere  love  for  the  old  Bay  State.  To  my  mind,  a  conflict  which  under 
other  circumstances  would  have  been  merely  personal  and  disgraceful, 
from  the  standpoint  from  which  I  viewed  it,  rose  to  the  dignity  of  a 
great  transaction — as  a  defence  of  freedom  of  speech.  I  should  have 
been  wiser,  I  am  certain,  if  I  had  followed  the  noble  example  set  by 
one  now  near  me,  who  has  ever  been  my  leader,  and  whom  I  am  proud 
so  to  acknowledge — one  who  represents  Massachusetts  in  her  loftiest 
mood,  on  her  highest  plane  of  action — one  whose  reason  was  never 
dimmed  by  passion.  I  pay  my  full  homage  to  that  position  here.  It 
is  the  right  position  unquestionably." 

LVIII. 

Public  meetings,  too,  were  held  in  the  Northern  States,  at  which 
resolutions  were  adopted  and  speeches  were  made  by  their  ablest  and 
most  distinguished  men.  Faneuil  Hall  did  not  remain  silent.  At  a 
large  and  deeply  excited  meeting,  held  without  distinction  of  sect  or 
party,  Peleg  W.  Chandler,  a  leading  politician,  after  alluding  to  the  fact 
that  he  was  Mr.  Simmer's  personal  friend  but  "political  opponent/1 
said  :  "  It  is  precisely  because  I  have  been  and  am  now  his  personal 
friend,  and  it  is  precisely  because  I  have  been  and  now  am  his  political 
opponent,  that  I  am  here  to-night.  *  *  *  Yet  personal  feelings 
are  of  little  or  no  consequence  in  this  outrage.  It  is  a  blow  not  merely 
at  Massachusetts,  a  blow  not  merely  at  the  name  and  fame  of  our  com 
mon  country,  it  is  a  blow  at  constitutional  liberty  all  the  world  over,  it 
is  a  stab  at  the  cause  of  universal  freedom.  Whatever  may  be  done  in 
this  matter,  however,  one  thing  is  certain,  one  thing  is  sure.  The  blood 
of  this  Northern  man  now  stains  the  Senate  floor,  and  let  me  tell  you 
that  not  all  the  water  of  the  Potomac  can  wash  it  out.  Forever,  for 
ever,  and  aye,  that  stain  will  plead  in  silence  for  liberty  wherever  man 
is  enslaved,  for  humanity  all  over  the  world,  for  truth  and  for  justice, 
now  and  forever." 


26O  FATE   OF   KEITT   AND    BROOKS. 

Edward  Everett,  too,  whose  name  and  influence  had  always  been 
associated  with  what  was  termed  the  "  conservative  "  side  of  the  great 
question  at  issue,  spoke  strongly  of  "  the  act  of  lawless  violence,  of 
which,"  he  said,  "  I  know  no  parallel  in  the  history  of  constitutional 
government ;"  adding  that  "  for  the  good  name,  the  peace,  the  safety  of 
the  country,  for  the  cause  of  free  institutions  throughout  the  world,  it 
were  worth  all  the  gold  of  California  to  blot  from  our  history  the  record 
of  the  past  week."  Cambridge,  too,  spoke  from  the  lips  of  her  dis 
tinguished  jurists,  professors,  and  literary  men  ;  Brown  University  in 
the  strong,  terse  words  of  its  President ;  and  New  York  in  the  elo 
quent  and  forceful  utterances  of  some  of  its  most  distinguished  lawyers 
and  clergymen.  Indignation  at  the  cowardly  assault,  sympathy  for  the 
sufferer,  and  alarm  for  the  future  mingled  largely  in  the  sentiments 
uttered  in  the  burning  words  which  thus  found  expression  and  response. 
Besides,  it  entered  largely  into  the  Presidental  campaign  that  soon  com 
menced,  and  became  one  of  the  battle-cries  of  freedom  and  of  the  new 
party  that  then  appealed  for  the  first  time  for  the  suffrages  of  the  nation. 


LIX. 

Nor  did  the  interest  cease  with  the  tragedy  itself  and  these  immediate 
demonstrations  of  approval  or  disapproval.  The  sequel  was  more 
tragic,  and,  to  the  thoughtful,  far  more  impressive  and  replete  with  its 
lessons  of  wisdom  and  warning.  Of  the  three  prominent  actors,  the 
most  audacious,  arrogant,  insulting,  and,  for  the  time  being,  seemingly 
most  potential,  Brooks  and  Butler,  were  in  their  graves  in  less  than  a 
year ;  while  Keitt  died  fighting  in  a  war  which  destroyed  the  slave  sys 
tem  and  swept  it  from  the  land.  Brooks  died  suddenly,  but  not  until 
he  had  confessed  to  his  friend,  James  L.  Orr,  that  he  was  tired  of  the 
new  role  he  had  chosen,  and  heart-sick  of  being  the  recognized  repre 
sentative  of  bullies,  the  recipient  of  their  ostentatious  gifts  and  officious 
testimonials  of  admiration  and  regard. 

Nor  were  all  its  lessons  exhausted  at  the  South.  At  the  North  the 
subsequent  developments  were  equally  significant  and  sad.  For,  not 
withstanding  the  brutality  of  the  outrage  and  its  unequivocal  indorse 
ment  by  the  South,  a  fact  fully  recognized  and  properly  condemned  by 
those  public  demonstrations  at  the  North,  yet,  when  the  hour  of  trial 
came,  as  it  did  in  the  presidential  election  in  the  autumn,  the  very  man 


EUROPE   WITH   THE   UNION.  26l 

who  had  volunteered  an  apology  for  the  assault  was  made  President, 
and  that  largely  by  Northern  votes.  Party  was  thus  shown  to  be 
stronger  than  principle,  patriotism  stronger  than  philanthropy,  regard 
for  the  Union  stronger  than  regard  for  human  rights,  the  fear  of  man 
stronger  than  the  fear  of  God. 

LX. 

The  opinion  of  Europe  concerning  Mr.  SUMNER  was 
all  one  way.  There,  his  high  character  and  public  ser 
vices  were  fully  understood.  There  was  no  Pro-Slavery 
party  in  Europe,  outside  of  Spain ;  nor  throughout  the 
whole  civilized  world,  beyond  the  limits  of  the  United 
States,  did  Mr.  Brooks  find  an  apologist.  No  act  in 
the  barbarous  record  of  Slavery,  nor  all  of  them  put 
together,  had  done  so  much  to  alienate  mankind  from 
it  and  its  brazen  champions.  And  when  at  last  the 
Southern  States  seceded,  and  the  Confederacy  turned 
its  eyes  abroad  for  recognition  and  sympathy,  it  met 
with  disdain  and  contempt  from  every  nation  and  every 
class  in  the  Old  World,  except  the  Cotton  Kings  and 
the  Aristocracy  of  Great  Britain.  The  ruling  classes  of 
England,  to  some  extent,  did  sympathize  with  the 
Southern  Rebellion,  as  they  had  from  the  hour  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  greeted  with  friendly  re 
cognition  every  harbinger  of  evil  to  the  rising  Republic 
of  the  West.  These  classes  had  built  the  Alabama  and 
her  sister  corsairs — they  had  equipped  the  fleet  that 
sailed  out  of  British  ports  to  sweep  American  commerce 
from  the  ocean  ;  and  these  pirates  had  swarmed  over  all 
the  seas  on  their  fiendish  mission.  But  beyond  that 
narrow  sphere,  the  Southern  Rebellion  received  no  aid 
or  comfort.  Its  leaders  were  regarded  as  parricides  and 
traitors ;  whilst  the  down-trodden  masses  of  men  in 
every  part  of  the  world  looked  upon  the  threatened 


262  THE   APPROACHING   CONFLICT. 

overthrow  of  the  American  Union  as  the  greatest  dis 
aster  that  could  befall  the  human  race. 

LXI. 

Not  many  years  afterwards,  what  a  change  had  come 
over  the  nation,  and  what  a  vindication  was  finally  to  be 
made  ! 

"  For  time  at  last  sets  all  things  even — 
And  if  we  do  but  watch  the  hour, 
There  never  yet  was  human  power 

Which  could  evade,  if  unforgiven, 

The  patient  search  and  vigil  long 

Of  him  who  treasures  up  a  wrong." 

The  same  bells  that  had  rung  out  their  chimes  so 
merrily  to  usher  in  the  Rebellion,  and  reecho  the  curses 
of  South  Carolina  upon  the  name  of  SUMNER,  were  all 
tolling  his  death-knell  on  the  morning  when  the  tele 
graph  flashed  the  news  that  the  great  champion  of 
Freedom  was  no  more.  But  we  will  now  forego  any 
expression  of  exultation  or  gratitude  on  this  account, 
and  resume  the  thread  of  our  narrative.  It  will  lead  us 
through  scenes  of  suffering  and  blood.  It  will  remind 
us  of  a  hundred  battle-fields  where  Liberty  had  once 
more  to  pass  through  the  fires  of  conflict — a  conflict 
compared  with  which,  all  the  struggles  of  the  old  Revo 
lution  were  but  the  pangs  of  the  suffering  child  to  the 
throes  of  the  bleeding  giant. 

LXIL 

In  opening  his  great  Speech — THE  CRIME  AGAINST 
KANSAS — Mr.  Sumner  said,  May  igth  and  2oth,  1856:— 


THE    CRIME    AGAINST    KANSAS.  263 

Mr.  President, — You  are  now  called  to  redress  a  great  wrong.  Sel 
dom  in  the  history  of  nations  is  such  a  question  presented.  Tariffs, 
army  bills,  navy  bills,  land  bills,  are  important,  and  justly  occupy  your 
care  ;  but  these  all  belong  to  the  course  of  ordinary  legislation.  As 
means  and  instruments  only,  they  are  necessarily  subordinate  to  the 
conservation  of  Government  itself.  Grant  them  or  deny  them,  in 
greater  or  less  degree,  and  you  inflict  no  shock.  The  machinery  of 
Government  continues  to  move.  The  State  does  not  cease  to  exist. 
Far  otherwise  is  it  with  the  eminent  question  now  before  you,  involving, 
as  it  does,  Liberty  in  a  broad  Territory,  and  also  involving  the  peace  of 
the  whole  country,  with  our  good  name  in  history  for  evermore. 

Take  down  your  map,  Sir,  and  you  will  find  that  the  Territory  of 
Kansas,  more  than  any  other  region,  occupies  the  middle  spot  of  North 
America,  equally  distant  from  the  Atlantic  on  the  east,  and  the  Pacific 
on  the  west,  from  the  frozen  waters  of  Hudson's  Bay  on  the  north,  and 
the  tepid  Gulf  Stream  on  the  south, — constituting  the  precise  geographi 
cal  centre  of  the  whole  vast  Continent.  To  such  advantages  of  situa 
tion,  on  the  very  highway  between  two  oceans,  are  added  a  soil  of  un 
surpassed  richness,  and  a  fascinating,  undulating  beauty  of  surface,  with 
a  health-giving  climate,  calculated  to  nurture  a  powerful  and  generous 
people,  worthy  to  be  a  central  pivot  of  American  institutions.  A  few 
short  months  have  hardly  passed  since  this  spacious  mediterranean 
country  was  open  only  to  the  savage,  who  ran  wild  in  its  woods  and 
prairies  ;  and  now  it  has  drawn  to  its  bosom  a  population  of  freemen 
larger  than  Athens  crowded  within  her  historic  gates,  when  her  sons, 
under  Miltiades,  won  liberty  for  mankind  on  the  field  of  Marathon, — 
more  than  Sparta  contained,  when  she  ruled  Greece,  and  sent  forth  her 
devoted  children,  quickened  by  a  mother's  benediction,  to  return  with 
their  shields  or  on  them, — more  than  Rome  gathered  on  her  seven  hills, 
when,  under  her  kings,  she  commenced  that  sovereign  sway  which 
afterwards  embraced  the  whole  earth, — more  than  London  held,  when, 
on  the  fields  of  Crecy  and  Agincourt,  the  English  banner  was  borne 
victorious  over  the  chivalrous  hosts  of  France. 

Against  this  Territory,  thus  fortunate  in  position  and  population,  a 
Crime  has  been  committed  which  is  without  example  in  the  records  of 
the  Past.  Not  in  plundered  provinces  or  in  the  cruelties  of  selfish  gov 
ernors  will  you  find  its  parallel ;  and  yet  there  is  an  ancient  instance 
which  may  show,  at  least,  the  path  of  justice.  In  the  terrible  impeach 
ment  by  which  the  Roman  Orator  has  blasted  through  all  time  the  name 
of  Verres,  charges  were,  that  he  had  carried  away  productions  of  Art, 


264  A   TYRANNICAL   USURPATION. 

and  had  violated  the  sacred  shrines.  But,  amidst  charges  of  robbery 
and  sacrilege,  the  enormity  which  most  aroused  the  indignant  voice  of 
his  accuser,  and  which  still  stands  forth  with  strongest  distinctness, 
arousing  the  sympathetic  indignation  of  all  who  read  the  story,  was, 
that  away  in  Sicily  he  had  scourged  a  citizen  of  Rome, — that  the  cry, 
"  I  am  a  Roman  citizen,"  had  been  interposed  in  vain  against  the  lash 
of  the  tyrant  governor.  It  was  in  the  presence  of  the  Roman  Senate 
that  this  arraignment  proceeded, — in  a  temple  of  the  Forum, • — amidst 
crowds  such  as  no  orator  had  ever  before  drawn  together,  thronging  the 
porticos  and  colonnades,  even  clinging  to  the  house-tops  and  neighbor 
ing  slopes,  and  under  the  anxious  gaze  of  witnesses  summoned  from  the 
scene  of  crime.  But  an  audience  grander  far,  of  higher  dignity,  of  more 
various  people,  and  of  wider  intelligence, — the  countless  multitude  of 
succeeding  generations,  in  every  land  where  eloquence  has  been 
studied,  or  where  the  Roman  name  has  been  recognized, — has  listened 
to  the  accusation,  and  throbbed  with  condemnation  of  the  criminal. 
Sir,  speaking  in  an  age  of  light,  and  in  a  land  of  constitutional  liberty, 
where  the  safeguards  of  elections  are  justly  placed  among  the  highest 
triumphs  of  civilization,  I  fearlessly  assert  that  the  wrongs  of  much- 
abused  Sicily,  thus  memorable  in  history,  were  small  by  the  side  of  the 
wrongs  of  Kansas,  where  the  very  shrines  of  popular  institutions,  more 
sacred  than  any  heathen  altar,  are  desecrated, — where  the  ballot-box, 
more  precious  than  any  work  in  ivory  or  marble  from  the  cunning  hand 
of  Art,  is  plundered, — and  where  the  cry,  "  I  am  an  American  citizen," 
is  interposed  in  vain  against  outrage  of  every  kind,  even  upon  life 
itself.  Are  you  against  robbery  ?  I  hold  it  up  to  your  scorn.  Are 
you  against  sacrilege  ?  I  present  it  for  your  execration.  Are  you  for 
the  protection  of  American  citizens  ?  I  show  you  how  their  dearest 
rights  are  cloven  down,  while  a  Tyrannical  Usurpation  seeks  to  install 
itself  on  their  very  necks  ! 


LXIII. 

The  wickedness  which  I  now  begin  to  expose  is  immeasurably  aggra 
vated  by  the  motive  which  prompted  it.  Not  in  any  common  lust  for 
power  did  this  uncommon  tragedy  have  its  origin.  It  is  the  rape  of  a 
virgin  Territory,  compelling  it  to  the  hateful  embrace  of  Slavery  ;  and 
it  may  be  clearly  traced  to  a  depraved  desire  for  a  new  Slave  State, 
hideous  offspring  of  such  a  crime,  in  the  hope  of  adding  to  the  power 


FRATRICIDAL,    PATRICIDAL   WAR.  265 

of  Slavery  in  the  National  Government.  Yes,  Sir,  when  the  whole 
world,  alike  Christian  and  Turk,  is  rising  up  to  condemn  this  wrong, 
making  it  a  hissing  to  the  nations,  here  in  our  Republic,  force — ay,  Sir, 
FORCE — is  openly  employed  in  compelling  Kansas  to  this  pollution, 
and  all  for  the  sake  of  political  power.  There  is  the  simple  fact,  which 
you  will  vainly  attempt  to  deny,  but  which  in  itself  presents  an  essential 
wickedness  that  makes  other  public  crimes  seem  like  public  virtues. 

This  enormity,  vast  beyond  comparison,  swells  to  dimensions  of 
crime  which  the  imagination  toils  in  vain  to  grasp,  when  it  is  under 
stood  that  for  this  purpose  are  hazarded  the  horrors  of  intestine  feud, ' 
not  only  in  this  distant  Territory,  but  everywhere  throughout  the  coun 
try.  The  muster  has  begun.  The  strife  i's  no  longer  local,  but  national. 
Even  now,  while  I  speak,  portents  lower  in  the  horizon,  threatening  to 
darken  the  land,  which  already  palpitates  with  the  mutterings  of  civil 
war.  The  fury  of  the  propagandists,  and  the  calm  determination  of 
their  opponents,  are  diffused  from  the  distant  Territory  over  wide-spread 
communities,  and  the  whole  country,  in  all  its  extent,  marshalling  hos 
tile  divisions,  and  foreshadowing  a  conflict  which,  unless  happily  averted 
by  the  triumph  of  Freedom,  will  become  war, — fratricidal,  parricidal 
war, — with  an  accumulated  wickedness  beyond  that  of  any  war  in 
human  annals,  justly  provoking  the  avenging  judgment  of  Providence 
and  the  avenging  pen  of  History,  and  constituting  a  strife  such  as  was 
pictured  by  the  Roman  historian,  more  than  foreign,  more  than  social, 
more  than  civil,  being  something  compounded  of  all  these,  and  in  itself 
more  than  war, — "  sed  potius  commune  quoddam  ex  omnibus,  et  plus 
quam  bellum" 

Such  is  the  Crime  which  you  are  to  judge.  The  criminal  also  must 
be  dragged  into  day,  that  you  may  see  and  measure  the  power  by  which 
all  this  wiong  is  sustained.  From  no  common  source  could  it  proceed. 
In  its  perpetration  was  needed  a  spirit  of  vaulting  ambition  which 
would  hesitate  at  nothing  ;  a  hardihood  of  purpose  insensible  to  the 
judgment  of  mankind;  a  madness  for  Slavery,  in  spite  of  Constitution, 
laws,  and  all  the  great  examples  of  our  history ;  also  a  consciousness  of 
power  such  as  comes  from  the  habit  of  power  ;  a  combination  of  ener 
gies  found  only  in  a  hundred  arms  directed  by  a  hundred  eyes  ;  a  con 
trol  of  Public  Opinion  through  venal  pens  and  a  prostituted  press  ;  an 
ability  to  subsidize  crowds  in  every  vocation  of  life, — the  politician  with 
his  local  importance,  the  lawyer  with  his  subtle  tongue,  and  even  the 
authority  of  the  judge  on  the  bench, — with  a  familiar  use  of  men  in 
places  high  and  low,  so  that  none,  from  the  President  to  the  lowest 


266  THE   WOE    AND    SHAME   OF    THE   CRIME. 

border  postmaster,  should  decline  to  be  its  tool :  all  these  things,  and 
more,  were  needed,  and  they  were  found  in  the  Slave  Power  of  our  Re 
public.  There,  Sir,  stands  the  criminal,  all  unmasked  before  you, 
heartless,  grasping,  and  tyrannical,  with  an  audacity  beyond  that  of 
Verres,  a  subtlety  beyond  that  of  Machiavel,  a  meanness  beyond  that 
of  Bacon,  and  an  ability  beyond  that  of  Hastings.  Justice  to  Kansas 
can  be  secured  only  by  the  prostration  of  this  influence  :  for  this  is  the 
Power  behind — greater  than  any  President — which  succors  and  sustains 
the  Crime.  Nay,  the  proceedings  I  now  arraign  derive  their  fearful 
consequence  only  from  this  connection. 


LXIV. 

In  opening  this  great  matter,  I  am  not  insensible  to  the  austere  de 
mands  of  the  occasion  ;  but  the  dependence  of  the  Crime  against  Kan 
sas  upon  the  Slave  Power  is  so  peculiar  and  important  that  I  trust  to 
be  pardoned  while  I  impress  it  by  an  illustration  which  to  some  may 
seem  trivial.  It  is  related  in  Northern  Mythology,  that  the  God  of 
Force,  visiting  an  enchanted  region,  was  challenged  by  his  royal  enter 
tainer  to  what  seemed  a  humble  feat  of  strength, — merely,  Sir,  to  lift  a 
cat  from  the  ground.  The  god  smiled  at  the  challenge,  and,  calmly 
placing  his  hand  under  the  belly  of  the  animal,  with  superhuman 
strength  strove,  while  the  back  of  the  feline  monster  arched  far 
upwards,  even  beyond  reach,  and  one  paw  actually  forsook  the  earth, 
when  at  last  the  discomfited  divinity  desisted  ;  but  he  was  little  sur 
prised  at  his  defeat,  when  he  learned  that  this  creature,  which  seemed 
to  be  a  cat,  and  nothing  more,  was  not  merely  a  cat,  but  that  it  be 
longed  to  and  was  part  of  the  great  Terrestrial  Serpent  which  in  its  in 
numerable  folds  encircled  the  whole  globe.  Even  so  the  creature 
whose  paws  are  now  fastened  upon  Kansas,  whatever  it  may  seem  to 
be,  constitutes  in  reality  part  of  the  Slave  Power,  which,  with  loathsome 
folds,  is  now  coiled  about  the  whole  land.  Thus  do  I  exhibit  the  ex 
tent  of  the  present  contest,  where  we  encounter  not  merely  local  re 
sistance,  but  also  the  unconquered  sustaining  arm  behind.  But  from 
the  vastness  of  the  Crime  attempted,  with  all  its  woe  and  shame,  I  de 
rive  well-founded  assurance  of  commensurate  effort  by  the  aroused 
masses  of  the  country,  determined  not  only  to  vindicate  Right  against 
Wrong,  but  to  redeem  the  Republic  from  the  thraldom  of  that  Oligar 
chy  which  prompts,  directs,  and  concentrates  the  distant  wrong. 


ITS    ORIGIN    AND    EXTENT.  267 

Such  is  the  Crime  and  such  the  criminal  which  it  is  my  duty  to  ex 
pose  ;  and,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  this  duty  shall  be  done  completely 
to  the  end.  But  this  will  not  be  enough.  The  Apologies  which,  with 
strange  hardihood,  are  offered  for  the  Crime  must  be  torn  away,  so 
that  it  shall  stand  forth  without  a  single  rag  or  fig-leaf  to  cover  its  vile- 
ness.  And,  finally,  the  True  Remedy  must  be  shown.  The  subject  is 
complex  in  relations,  as  it  is  transcendent  in  importance  ;  and  yet,  if  1 
am  honored  by  your  attention,  I  hope  to  present  it  clearly  in  all  its 
parts,  while  I  conduct  you  to  the  inevitable  conclusion  that  Kansas 
must  be  admitted  at  once,  with  her  present  Constitution,  as  a  State  of 
this  Union,  and  give  a  new  star  to  the  blue  field  of  our  National  Flag. 
And  here  I  derive  satisfaction  from  the  thought,  that  the  cause  is  so 
strong  in  itself  as  to  bear  even  the  infirmities  of  its  advocates ;  nor  can 
it  require  anything  beyond  that  simplicity  of  treatment,  and  moderation 
of  manner  which  I  desire  to  cultivate.  Its  true  character  is  such,  that, 
like  Hercules,  it  will  conquer  just  so  soon  as  it  is  recognized. 

My  task  will  be  divided  under  three  different  heads  :  first,  THE 
CRIME  AGAINST  KANSAS,  in  its  origin  and  extent ;  secondly,  THE  APOL 
OGIES  FOR  THE  CRIME  ;  and,  thirdly,  THE  TRUE  REMEDY.  * 


LXV. 

I  undertake,  in  the  first  place,  to  expose  the  CRIME  AGAINST  KANSAS, 
in  origin  and  extent.  Logically  this  is  the  beginning  of  the  argument. 
I  say  Crime,  and  deliberately  adopt  this  .strongest  term,  as  better  than 
any  other  denoting  the  consummate  transgression.  I  would  go  further, 
if  language  could  further  go.  It  is  the  Crime  of  Crimes, — surpassing 
far  the  old  Crimen  Majestatis,  pursued  with  vengeance  by  the  laws  of 
Rome,  and  containing  all  other  crimes,  as  the  greater  contains  the  less. 
I  do  not  go  too  far.  when  I  call  it  the  Crime  against  Nature,  from 
which  the  soul  recoils,  and  which  language  refuses  to  describe.  To  lay 
bare  this  enormity  I  now  proceed.  The  whole  subject  has  become  a 
twice-told  tale,  and  its  renewed  recital  will  be  a  renewal  of  sorrow  and 
shame  ;  but  I  shall  not  hesitate.  The  occasion  requires  it  from  the 
beginning. 

It  is  well  remarked  by  a  distinguished  historian  of  our  country,  that, 
"  at  the  Ithuriel  touch  of  the  Missouri  discussion,  the  Slave  Interest, 
hitherto  hardly  recognized  as  a  distinct  element  in  our  system,  started 
up  portentous  and  dilated,"  with  threats  and  assumptions  which  are 


268          FORCED  ON  A  RELUCTANT  NORTH. 

the  origin  of  our  existing  national  politics.  This  was  in  1820.  The 
debate  ended  with  the  admission  of  Missouri  as  a  Slaveholding  State, 
and  the  prohibition  of  Slavery  in  all  the  remaining  territory  west  of  the 
Mississippi,  and  north  of  36°  30',  leaving  the  condition  of  other  terri 
tory  south  of  this  line,  or  subsequently  acquired,  untouched  by  the 
arrangement.  Here  was  a  solemn  act  of  legislation,  called  at  the  time 
compromise,  covenant,  compact,  first  brought  forward  in  this  body  by 
a  slaveholder,  vindicated  in  debate  by  slaveholders,  finally  sanctioned 
by  slaveholding  votes, — also  upheld  at  the  time  by  the  essential  appro 
bation  of  a  slaveholding  President,  James  Monroe,  and  his  Cabinet,  of 
whom  a  majority  were  slaveholders,  including  Mr.  Caihoun  himself; 
and  this  compromise  was  made  the  condition  of  the  admission  of  Mis 
souri,  without  which  that  State  could  not  have  been  received  into  the 
Union.  The  bargain  was  simple,  and  was  applicable,  of  course,  only 
to  the  territory  named.  Leaving  all  other  territory  to  await  the  judg 
ment  of  another  generation,  the  South  said  to  the  North,  Conquer  your 
prejudices  so  far  as  to  admit  Missouri  as  a  Slave  State,  and,  in  consid 
eration  of  this  much-coveted  boon,  Slavery  shall  be  prohibited  "  for 
ever"  (mark  here  the  word  "forever"}  in  all  the  remaining  Louisiana 
Territory  above  36°  30' ;  and  the  North  yielded. 

In  total  disregard  of  history,  the  President,  in  his  annual  message, 
tells  us  that  this  compromise  "  was  reluctantly  acquiesced  in  by  South 
ern  States."  Just  the  contrary  is  true.  It  was  the  work  of  slave 
holders,  and  by  their  concurring  votes  was  crowded  upon  a  reluctant 
North.  It  was  hailed  by  slaveholders  as  a  victory.  Charles  Pinckney, 
of  South  Carolina,  in  an  oft  quoted  letter,  written  at  eight  o'clock  on 
the  night  of  its  passage,  says:  "It  is  considered  here  by  the  Slavehold 
ing  States  as  a  great  triumph."  At  the  North  it  was  accepted  as  a  de 
feat,  and  the  friends  of  Freedom  everywhere  throughout  the  country 
bowed  their  heads  with  mortification.  Little  did  they  know  the  com 
pleteness  of  their  disaster.  Little  did  they  dream  that  the  prohibition 
of  Slavery  in  the  territory,  which  was  stipulated  as  the  price  of  their 
fatal  capitulation,  would  also,  at  the  very  moment  of  its  maturity,  be 
wrested  from  them. 

LXVI. 

Time  passed,  and  it  became  necessary  to  provide  for  this  territory  an 
organized  government.  Suddenly,  without  notice  in  the  public  press, 
or  the  prayer  of  a  single  petition,  or  one  word  of  open  recommendation 


HOW   THE    CRIME    WAS   ENGENDERED.  269 

from  the  President,  after  an  acquiescence  of  thirty-four  years,  and  the 
irreclaimable  possession  by  the  South  of  its  special  share  under  this 
compromise,  in  breach  of  every  obligation  of  honor,  compact,  and  good 
neighborhood,  and  in  contemptuous  disregard  of  the  outgushing  senti 
ments  of  an  aroused  North,  this  time-honored  Prohibition — in  itself  a 
landmark  of  Freedom — was  overturned,  and  the  vast  region  now  known 
as  Kansas  and  Nebraska  was  opened  to  Slavery.  It  is  natural  that  a 
measure  thus  repugnant  in  character  should  be  pressed  by  arguments 
mutually  repugnant.  It  was  urged  on  two  principal  reasons,  so  oppo 
site  and  inconsistent  as  to  fight  with  each  other  :  one  being,  that,  by 
the  repeal  of  the  Prohibition,  the  Territory  would  be  left  open  to  the 
entry  of  slaveholders  with  their  slaves,  without  hindrance  ;  and  the 
other  being,  that  the  people  would  be  left  absolutely  free  to  determine 
the  question  for  themselves,  and  to  prohibit  the  entry  of  slaveholders 
with  their  slaves,  if  they  should  think  best.  With  some  the  apology 
was  the  alleged  rights  of  slaveholders  ;  with  others  it  was  the  alleged 
rights  of  the  people.  With  some  it  was  openly  the  extension  of 
Slavery ;  and  with  others  it  was  openly  the  establishment  of  Freedom, 
under  the  guise  of  Popular  Sovereignty.  The  measure,  thus  upheld  in 
defiance  of  reason,  was  carried  through  Congress  in  defiance  of  all 
securities  of  legislation.  These  things  I  mention  that  you  may  see  in 
what  foulness  the  present  Crime  was  engendered. 

It  was  carried,  first,  by  whipping  in,  through  Executive  influence 
and  patronage,  men  who  acted  against  their  own  declared  judgment 
and  the  known  will  of  their  constituents ;  secondly,  by  thrusting  out  of 
place,  both  in  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives,  important  busi 
ness,  long  pending,  and  usurping  its  room  ;  thirdly,  by  trampling  under 
foot  the  rules  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  always  before  the  safe 
guard  of  the  minority ;  and,  fourthly,  by  driving  it  to  a  close  during  the 
very  session  in  which  it  originated,  so  that  it  might  not  be  arrested  by 
the  indignant  voice  of  the  People.  Such  are  some  of  the  means  by 
which  this  snap  judgment  was  obtained.  If  the  clear  will  of  the  people 
had  not  been  disregarded,  it  could  not  have  passed.  If  the  Govern 
ment  had  not  nefariously  interposed,  it  could  not  have  passed.  If  it 
had  been  left  to  its  natural  place  in  the  order  of  business,  it  could  not 
have  passed.  If  the  rules  of  the  House  and  the  rights  of  the  minority 
had  not  been  violated,  it  could  not  have  passed.  If  it  had  been  allowed 
to  go  over  to  another  Congress,  when  the  People  might  be  heard,  it 
would  have  been  ended  ;  and  then  the  Crime  we  now  deplore  would 
have  been  without  its  first  seminal  life. 


2/O  THE    NEBRASKA  ACT  A   SWINDLE. 


LXVII. 

Mr.  President,  I  mean  to  keep  absolutely  within  the  limits  of  parlia 
mentary  propriety.  I  make  no  personal  imputations,  but  only  with 
frankness,  such  as  belongs  to  the  occasion  and  my  own  character,  de 
scribe  a  great  historical  act,  now  enrolled  in  the  Capitol.  Sir,  the  Ne 
braska  Bill  was  in  every  respect  a  swindle.  It  was  a  swindle  of  the 
North  by  the  South.  On  the  part  of  those  who  had  already  completely 
enjoyed  their  share  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  it  was  a  swindle  of 
those  whose  share  was  yet  absolutely  untouched ;  and  the  plea  of  un- 
constitutionality  set  up — like  the  plea  of  usury  after  the  borrowed 
money  has  been  enjoyed — did  not  make  it  less  a  swindle.  Urged  as  a 
bill  of  peace,  it  was  a  swindle  of  the  whole  country.  Urged  as  opening 
the  doors  to  slave- masters  with  their  slaves,  it  was  a  swindle  of  Popular 
Sovereignty  in  its  asserted  doctrine.  Urged  as  sanctioning  Popular 
Sovereignty,  it  was  a  swindle  of  slave-masters  in  their  asserted  rights. 
It  \vas  a  swindle  of  a  broad  territory,  thus  cheated  of  protection  against 
Slavery.  It  was  a  swindle  of  a  great  cause,  early  espoused  by  Wash 
ington,  Franklin,  and  Jefferson,  surrounded  by  the  best  fathers  of  the 
Republic.  Sir,  it  was  a  swindle  of  God-given,  inalienable  rights.  Turn 
it  over,  look  at  it  on  all  sides,  and  it  is  everywhere  a  swindle  ;  and  if 
the  word  I  now  employ  has*  not  the  authority  of  classical  usage,  it  has, 
on  this  occasion,  the  indubitable  authority  of  fitness.  No  other  word 
will  adequately  express  the  mingled  meanness  and  wickedness  of  the 
cheat. 

Its  character  is  still  further  apparent  in  the  general  structure  of  the 
bill.  Amidst  overflowing  professions  of  regard  for  the  sovereignty  of 
the  people  in  the  Territory,  they  are  despoiled  of  every  essential  privi 
lege  of  sovereignty.  They  are  not  allowed  to  choose  Governor,  Sec- 
retarv,  Chief-Justice,  Associate  Justices,  Attorney,  or  Marshal. — all  of 
whom  are  sent  from  Washington  ;  nor  are  they  allowed  to  regulate  the 
salaries  of  any  of  these  functionaries,  or  the  daily  allowance  of  the  legis 
lative  body,  or  even  the  pay  of  the  clerks  and  doorkeepers :  but  they 
are  left  free  to  adopt  Slavery.  And  this  is  nicknamed  Popular  Sov 
ereignty  !  Time  does  not  allow,  nor  does  the  occasion  require,  that  I 
should  stop  to  dwell  on  this  transparent  device  to  cover  a  transcendent 
wrong.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  Slavery  is  in  itself  an  arrogant  denial  of 
human  rights,  and  by  no  human  reason  can  the  power  to  establish  such 
a  wrong  be  placed  among  the  attributes  of  any  just  sovereignty.  In 


ITS   OFFENSIVE   PROVISIONS. 

refusing  it  such  a  place,  I  do  not  deny  popular  rights,  but  uphold  them, 
I  do  not  restrain  popular  rights,  but  extend  them.  And,  Sir,  to  this 
conclusion  you  must  yet  come,  unless  deaf,  not  only  to  the  admonitions 
of  political  justice,  but  also  to  the  genius  of  our  Constitution,  under 
which,  when  properly  interpreted,  no  valid  claim  for  Slavery  can  be  set 
up  anywhere  in  the  National  territory.  The  Senator  from  Michigan 
[Mr.  CASS]  may  say,  in  response  to  the  Senator  from  Mississippi  [Mr. 
BROWN],  that  Slavery  cannot  go  into  the  Territory,  under  the  Constitu 
tion,  without  legislative  introduction  ;  and  permit  me  to  add,  in  re 
sponse  to  both,  that  Slavery  cannot  go  there  at  all.  Nothing  can  come 
out  of  nothing  ;  and  there  is  absolutely  nothing  in  the  Constitution  out 
of  which  Slavery  can  be  derived,  while  there  are  provisions,  which,  when 
properly  interpreted,  make  its  existence  anywhere  within  the  exclusive 
National  jurisdiction  impossible. 

LXVIII. 

The  offensive  provision  in  the  bill  is  in  its  form  a  legislative  anomaly, 
utterly  wanting  the  natural  directness  and  simplicity  of  an  honest  trans 
action.  It  does  not  undertake  openly  to  repeal  the  old  Prohibition  of 
Slavery,  but  seems  to  mince  the  matter,  as  if  conscious  of  the  swindle. 
It  says  that  this  Prohibition,  "  being  inconsistent  with  the  principle  of 
non-intervention  by  Congress  with  Slavery  in  the  States  and  Territories, 
as  recognized  by  the  legislation  of  1850,  commonly  called  the  Com 
promise  Measures,  is  hereby  declared  inoperative  and  void."  Thus, 
with  insidious  ostentation,  is  it  pretended  that  an  act  violating  the 
greatest  compromise  of  our  legislative  history,  and  loosening  the  founda 
tions  of  all  compromise,  is  derived  out  of  a  compromise.  Then  follows 
in  the  bill  the  further  declaration,  entirely  without  precedent,  which  has 
been  aptly  called  "a  stump  speech  in  its  belly,"  namely,  "  it  being  the 
true  intent  and  meaning  of  this  act  not  to  legislate  Slavery  into  any 
Territory  or  State,  nor  to  exclude  it  therefrom,  but  to  leave  the  people 
thereof  perfectly  free  to  form  and  regulate  their  domestic  institutions  in 
their  own  way,  subject  only  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States." 
Here  are  smooth  words,  such  as  belong  to  a  cunning  tongue  enlisted  in 
a  bad  cause.  But  whatever  may  have  been  their  various  hidden  mean 
ings,  this  at  least  is  evident,  that,  by  their  effect,  the  Congressional 
prohibition  of  Slavery,  which  had  always  been  regarded  as  a  seven-fold 
shield,  covering  the  whole  Louisiana  Territory  north  of  36°  30',  is  now 
removed,  while  a  principle  is  declared  which  renders  the  supplementary 


272        IT  CLEARED  THE  WAY  FOR  SLAVERY. 

prohibition  of  Slavery  in  Minnesota,  Oregon,  and  Washington  "  inop 
erative  and  void,"  and  thus  opens  to  Slavery  all  these  vast  regions,  now 
the  rude  cradles  of  mighty  States.  Here  you  see  the  magnitude  of  the 
mischief  contemplated.  But  my  purpose  is  with  the  Crime  against 
Kansas,  and  I  shall  not  stop  to  expose  the  conspiracy  beyond. 

Mr.  President,  men  are  wisely  presumed  to  intend  the  natural  con 
sequences  of  their  conduct,  and  to  seek  what  their  acts  seem  to  pro 
mote.  Now  the  Nebraska  Bill,  on  its  very  face,  openly  clears  the  way 
for  Slaver)-,  and  it  is  not  wrong  to  presume  that  its  originators  intended 
the  natural  consequences  of  such  an  act,  and  sought  in  this  way  to  ex 
tend  Slavery.  Of  course  they  did.  And  this  is  the  first  stage  in  the 
Crime  against  Kansas. 


LXIX. 

This  was  speedily  followed  by  other  developments.  It  was  soon 
whispered  that  Kansas  must  be  a  Slave  State.  In  conformity  with  this 
barefaced  scheme  was  the  Government  of  this  unhappy  Territory  organ 
ized  in  all  its  departments  ;  and  thus  did  the  President,  by  whose  com 
plicity  the  Prohibition  of  Slavery  was  overthrown,  lend  himself  to  a  new 
complicity, — giving  to  the  conspirators  a  lease  of  connivance,  amount 
ing  even  to  copartnership.  The  Governor,  Secretary,  Chief-Justice, 
Associate  Justices,  Attorney,  and  Marshal,  with  a  whole  caucus  of  other 
stipendiaries,  nominated  by  the  President  and  confirmed  by  the  Senate, 
are  all  commended  as  friendly  to  Slavery.  No  man  with  the  sentiments 
of  Washington  or  Jefferson  or  Franklin  finds  favor  ;  nor  is  it  too  much 
to  say,  that,  had  these  great  patriots  once  more  come  among  us,  not 
one  of  them,  with  his  recorded,  unretracted  opinions  on  Slavery,  could 
be  nominated  by  the  President  or  confirmed  by  the  Senate  for  any  post 
in  that  Territory.  With  such  auspices  the  conspiracy  proceeded. 
Even  in  advance  of  the  Nebraska  Bill,  secret  societies  were  organized 
in  Missouri,  ostensibly  to  protect  her  institutions,  and  afterwards,  under 
the  name  of  "  Self-Defensive  Associations"  and  "Blue  Lodges,"  these 
were  multiplied  throughout  the  western  counties  of  that  State,  before 
any  counter  movement  of  the  North.  It  was  confidently  anticipated, 
that,  by  the  activity  of  these  societies,  and  the  interest  of  slaveholders 
everywhere,  with  the  advantage  derived  from  the  neighborhood  of  Mis 
souri  and  the  influence  of  the  Territorial  Government,  Slavery  might  be 
introduced  into  Kansas,  quietly,  but  surely,  without  arousing  conflict, — 


A   PICTURE   OF   DIREFUL  TRUTH.  2/3 

that  the  crocodile  egg  might  be  stealthily  dropped  in  the  sunburnt  soil, 
there  to  be  hatched,  unobserved  until  it  sent  forth  its  reptile  monster. 

But  the  conspiracy  was  unexpectedly  balked.  The  debate,  which 
convulsed  Congress,  stirred  the  whole  country.  From  all  sides  atten 
tion  was  directed  upon  Kansas,  which  at  once  became  the  favorite  goal 
of  emigration.  The  bill  loudly  declares  that  its  object  is  "  to  leave  the 
people  perfectly  free  to  form  and  regulate  their  domestic  institutions  in 
their  own  way "  ;  and  its  supporters  everywhere  challenge  the  de 
termination  of  the  question  between  Freedom  and  Slavery  by  a  com 
petition  of  emigration.  Thus,  while  opening  the  Territory  to  Slavery, 
the  bill  also  opens  it  to  emigrants  from  every  quarter,  who  may  by 
votes  redress  the  wrong.  The  populous  North,  stung  by  sense  of  out 
rage,  and  inspired  by  a  noble  cause,  are  pouring  into  the  debatable 
land,  and  promise  soon  to  establish  a  supremacy  of  numbers  there,  in 
volving,  of  course,  a  just  supremacy  of  Freedom. 

Then  was  conceived  the  consummation  of  the  Crime  against  Kansas. 
What  could  not  be  accomplished  peaceably  was  to  be  accomplished 
forcibly.  The  reptile  monster,  that  could  not  be  quietly  and  securely 
hatched  there,  is  to  be  pushed  full-grown  into  the  Territory.  All  efforts 
are  now  applied  to  the  dismal  work  of  forcing  Slavery  upon  Free  Soil. 
In  flagrant  derogation  of  the  very  Popular  Sovereignty  whose  name 
helped  to  impose  this  bill  upon  the  country,  the  atrocious  object  is  dis 
tinctly  avowed.  And  the  avowal  is  followed  by  the  act.  Slavery  is 
forcibly  introduced  into  Kansas,  and  placed  under  formal  safeguard  of 
pretended  law.  How  this  is  done  belongs  to  the  argument. 

In  depicting  this  consummation,  the  simplest  outline,  without  one 
word  of  color,  will  be  best.  Whether  regarded  in  mass  or  detail,  in 
origin  or  result,  it  is  all  blackness,  illumined  by  nothing  from  itself,  but 
only  by  the-  heroism  of  the  undaunted  men  and  women  whom  it  en 
vironed.  A  plain  statement  of  facts  is  a  picture  'of  direst  truth,  which 
faithful  History  will  preserve  in  its  darkest  gallery.  In  the  foreground 
all  will  recognize  a  familiar  character,  in  himself  connecting  link  be 
tween  President  and  border  ruffian, — less  conspicuous  for  ability  than 
for  the  exalted  place  he  has  occupied, — who  once  sat  in  the  seat  where 
you  now  sit,  Sir, — where  once  sat  John  Adams  and  Thomas  Jefferson, 
— also,  where  once  sat  Aaron  Burr.  I  need  not  add  the  name  of 
David  R.  Atchison.  You  do  not  forget,  that,  at  the  session  of  Congress 
immediately  succeeding  the  Nebraska  Bill,  he  came  tardily  to  his  duty 
here,  and  then,  after  a  short  time,  disappeared.  The  secret  was  long 
since  disclosed.  Like  Catiline,  he  stalked  into  this  Chamber,  reeking 
18 


274  HOW  THE  TERRITORY   WAS   OVERRUN. 

with  conspiracy, — immo  etiam  in  Senatum  venit, — and  then,  like  Cati 
line,  he  skulked  away, — abiit,  excessit,  evasit,  erupit, — to  join  and  pro 
voke  the  conspirators,  who  at  a  distance  awaited  their  congenial  chief. 
Under  the  influence  of  his  malign  presence  the  Crime  ripened  to  its 
fatal  fruits,  while  the  similitude  with  Catiline  is  again  renewed  in  the 
sympathy,  not  even  concealed,  which  he  finds  in  the  very  Senate  itself, 
where,  beyond  even  the  Roman  example,  a  Senator  has  not  hesitated 
to  appear  as  his  own  compurgator. 

LXX. 

And  now,  as  I  proceed  to  show  the  way  in  which  this  Territory  was 
overrun  and  finally  subjugated  to  Slavery,  I  desire  to  remove,  in  ad 
vance,  all  question  with  regard  to  the  authority  on  which  I  rely.  The 
evidence  is  secondary,  but  it  is  the  best  which,  in  the  nature  of  the 
xcase,  can  be  had  ;  and  it  is  not  less  clear,  direct,  and  peremptory  than 
any  by  which  we  are  assured  of  the  campaigns  in  the  Crimea  or  the  fall 
of  Sebastopol.  In  its  manifold  mass,  I  confidently  assert  that  it  is  such 
«a  body  of  evidence  as  the  human  mind  is  not  able  to  resist.  It  is 
found  in  the  concurring  reports  of  the  public  press,  in  the  letters  of 
correspondents,  in  the  testimony  of  travellers,  and  in  the  unaffected 
story  to  which  I  have  listened  from  leading  citizens,  who,  during  this 
winter,  have  "  come  flocking "  here  from  that  distant  Territory.  It 
breaks  forth  in  the  irrepressible  outcry,  reaching  us  from  Kansas,  whose 
truthful  tones  leave  no  ground  of  mistake.  It  addresses  us  in  formal 
complaint,  instinct  with  the  indignation  of  a  people  determined  to  be 
ifree,  and  unimpeachable  as  the  declarations  of  a  murdered  man  on  his 
: dying-bed  against  his  murderer.  And  let  me  add,  that  all  this  testimony 
finds  echo  in  the  very  statute-book  of  the  conspirators,  and  also  in  lan 
guage  dropped  from  the  President  of  the  United  States. 

I  begin  with  an  admission  from  the  President  himself,  in  whose  sight 
the  people  of  Kansas  have  little  favor.  After  arraigning  the  innocent 
emigrants  from  the  North,  he  is  constrained  to  declare  that  their  con 
duct  is  "  far  from  justifying  the  illegal  and  reprehensible  counter  move 
ments  which  ensued."  By  the  reluctant  admission  of  the  Chief  Magis 
trate,  then,  there  was  a  counter  movement  at  or.ce  "  illegal  and  repre 
hensible"  I  thank  thee,  President,  for  teaching  me  these  words ;  and 
I  now  put  them  in  the  front  of  this  exposition,  as  in  themselves  a  con 
fession.  Sir,  this  "  illegal  and  reprehensible  counter  movement "  is 


GRAND   INVASION   OF  THE   TERRITORY.  2/5 

none  other  than  the  dreadful  Crime — under  an  apologetic  alias — by 
which,  through  successive  invasions,  Slavery  is  forcibly  planted  in  this 
Territory. 

Next  to  this  Presidential  admission  must  be  placed  details  of  in 
vasions,  which  I  now  present  as  not  only  "  illegal  and  reprehensible," 
but  also  unquestionable  evidence  of  the  resulting  Crime. 

The  violence,  for  some  time  threatened,  broke  forth  on  the  2pth  of 
November,  1854,  at  the  first  election  of  a  Delegate  to  Congress,  when 
companies  from  Missouri,  amounting  to  upwards  of  one  thousand, 
crossed  into  Kansas,  and  with  force  and  arms  proceeded  to  vote  for 
General  Whitfield,  the  candidate  of  Slavery.  An  eye-witness,  General 
Porneroy,  of  superior  intelligence  and  perfect  integrity,  thus  describes 
this  scene  : — 

"The  first  ballot-box  that  was  opened  upon  our  virgin  soil  was  closed 
to  us  by  overpowering  numbers  and  impending  force.  So  bold  and 
reckless  were  our  invaders,  that  they  cared  not  to  conceal  their  attack. 
They  came  upon  us,  not  in  the  guise  of  voters,  to  steal  away  our  fran 
chise,  but  boldly  and  openly,  to  snatch  it  with  a  strong  hand.  They 
came  directly  from  their  own  homes,  and  in  compact  and  organized 
bands,  with  arms  in  hand  and  provisions  for  the  expedition,  marched 
to  our  polls,  and  when  their  work  was  done,  returned  whence  they 
came." 

Here  was  an  outrage  at  which  the  coolest  blood  of  patriotism  boils. 
Though,  for  various  reasons  unnecessary  to  develop,  the  busy  settlers 
allowed  the  election  to  pass  uncontested,  still  the  means  employed  were 
none  the  less  "  illegal  and  reprehensible."  * 


LXXI. 

This  infliction  was  a  significant  prelude  to  the  grand  invasion  of  the 
3oth  of  March,  1855,  at  the  election  of  the  first  Territorial  Legislature 
under  the  organic  law,  when  an  armed  multitude  from  Missouri  entered 
the  Territory  in  larger  numbers  than  General  Taylor  commanded  at 
Buena  Vista,  or  than  General  Jackson  had  within  his  lines  at  New 
Orleans, — much  larger  than  our  fathers  rallied  on  Bunker  Hill.  On 
they  came  as  "an  army  with  banners,"  organized  in  companies,  with 
officers,  munitions,  tents,  and  provisions,  as  though  marching  upon  a 
foreign  foe,  and  breathing  loud-mouthed  threats  that  they  would  carry 
their  purpose,  if  need  were,  by  the  bowie-knife  and  revolver.  Among 
them,  according  to  his  own  confession,  was  David  R.  Atchison,  belted 


2/6  THE   BURSTING    OF  THE   STORM. 

with  the  vulgar  arms  of  his  vulgar  comrades.  Arrived  at  their  several 
destinations  on  the  night  before  the  election,  the  invaders  pitched  their 
tents,  placed  their  sentries,  and  waited  for  the  coming  day.  The  same 
trustworthy  eye-witness  whom  I  have  already  quoted  says  of  one  local 
ity  :- 

"  Baggage-wagons  were  there,  with  arms  and  ammunition  enough  for 
a  protracted  fight,  and  among  them  two  brass  field-pieces,  ready 
charged.  They  came  with  drums  beating  and  flags  flying,  and  their 
leaders  were  of  the  most  prominent  and  conspicuous  men  of  their 
State." 

Of  another  locality  he  says  : — 

"  The  invaders  came  together  in  one  armed  and  organized  body,  with 
trains  of  fifty  wagons,  besides  horsemen,  and  the  night  before  election 
pitched  their  camp  in  the  vicinity  of  the  polls  ;  and  having  appointed 
their  own  judges  in  place  of  those  who,  from  intimidation  or  otherwise, 
failed  to  attend,  they  voted  without  any  proof  of  residence." 

With  this  force  they  were  able,  on  the  succeeding  day,  in  some 
places,  to  intimidate  the  judges  of  elections,  in  others  to  substitute 
judges  of  their  own  appointment,  in  others  to  wrest  the  ballot-boxes 
from  their  rightful  possessors,  and  everywhere  to  exercise  a  complete 
control  of  the  election,  and  thus,  by  preternatural  audacity  of  usurpa 
tion,  impose  a  Legislature  upon  the  free  people  of  Kansas.  Thus  was 
conquered  the  Sebastopol  of  that  Territory  ! 

It  was  not  enough  to  secure  the  Legislature.  The  election  of  a 
member  of  Congress  recurred  on  the  ist  of  October,  1855,  and  the  same 
foreigners,  who  had  learned  their  strength,  again  manifested  it.  Another 
invasion,  in  controlling  numbers,  came  from  Missouri,  and  once  more 
forcibly  exercised  the  electoral  franchise  in  Kansas. 

LXXII. 

At  last,  in  the  latter  days  of  November,  1855,  a  storm,  long  gather 
ing,  burst  upon  the  heads  of  the  devoted  people.  The  ballot-boxes  had 
been  violated,  and  a  Legislature  installed,  which  proceeded  to  carry  out 
the  conspiracy  of  the  invaders;  but  the  good  people  of  the  Territory, 
born  to  Freedom,  and  educated  as  American  citizens,  showed  no  signs 
of  submission.  Slavery,  though  recognized  by  pretended  law,  was  in 
many  places  practically  an  outlaw.  To  the  lawless  borderers  this  was 
hard  to  bear  ;  and,  like  the  heathen  of  old,  they  raged,  particularly 
against  the  town  of  Lawrence,  already  known,  by  the  firmness  of  its 


THE  GOVERNOR'S  SERVILITY  TO  SLAVERY.          277 

principles  and  the  character  of  its  citizens,  as  citadel  of  the  good  cause. 
On  this  account  they  threatened,  in  their  peculiar  language,  to  "wipe 
it  out."  Soon  the  hostile  power  was  gathered  for  this  purpose.  The 
wickedness  of  this  invasion  was  enhanced  by  the  way  in  which  it  began. 
A  citizen  of  Kansas,  by  the  name  of  Dow,  was  murdered  by  a  partisan 
of  Slavery,  in  the  name  of  "  law  and  order."  Such  an  outrage  naturally 
aroused  indignation  and  provoked  threats.  The  professors  of  "  law 
and  order  "  allowed  the  murderer  to  escape,  and,  still  further  to  illus 
trate  the  irony  of  the  name  they  assumed,  seized  the  friend  of  the  mur 
dered  man,  whose  few  neighbors  soon  rallied  for  his  rescue.  This 
transaction,  though  totally  disregarded  in  its  chief  front  of  wickedness, 
became  the  excuse  for  unprecedented  excitement.  The  weak  Gov 
ernor,  with  no  faculty  higher  than  servility  to  Slavery, — whom  the 
President,  in  official  delinquency,  had  appointed  to  a  trust  worthy  only 
of  a  well-balanced  character, — was  frightened  from  his  propriety.  By 
proclamation  he  invoked  the  Territory.  By  telegraph  he  invoked  the 
President.  The  Territory  would  not  respond  to  his  senseless  appeal. 
The  President  was  false.  But  the  proclamation  was  circulated  through 
out  the  border  counties  of  Missouri  ;  and  Platte,  Clay,  Carroll,  Saline, 
Howard,  and  Jackson,  each  of  them,  contributed  a  volunteer  company, 
recruited  from  the  roadsides,  and  armed  with  weapons  which  chance 
afforded,  known  as  "the  shot-gun  militia," — with  a  Missouri  officer  as 
commissary-general,  dispensing  rations,  and  another  Missouri  officer  as 
general-in-chief, — with  two  wagon-loads  of  rifles,  belonging  to  Missouri, 
drawn  by  six  mules,  from  its  arsenal  at  Jefferson  City, — with  seven 
pieces  of  cannon,  belonging  to  the  United  States,  from  its  arsenal  at 
Liberty ;  and  this  formidable  force,  amounting  to  at  least  1,800  men, 
terrible  with  threats,  oaths,  and  whiskey,  crossed  the  borders,  and  en 
camped  in  larger  part  on  the  Wakarusa,  over  against  the  doomed  town 
of  Lawrence,  now  threatened  with  destruction.  With  these  invaders 
was  the  Governor,  who  by  this  act  levied  war  upon  the  people  he  was 
sent  to  protect.  In  camp  with  him  was  the  original  Catiline  of  the 
conspiracy,  while  by  his  side  were  the  docile  Chief- Justice  and  the 
docile  Judges.  But  this  is  not  the  first  instance  in  which  an  unjust 
governor  has  found  tools  where  he  ought  to  have  found  justice.  In  the 
great  impeachment  of  Warren  Hastings,  the  British  orator  by  whom  it 
was  conducted  exclaims,  in  words  strictly  applicable  to  the  misdeed  I 
here  denounce  :  "  Had  he  not  the  Chief-Justice,  the  tamed  and  domes 
ticated  Chief- Justice,  who  waited  on  him  like  a  familiar  spirit  ?  "  Thus 
was  this  invasion  countenanced  by  those  who  should  have  stood  in  the 


278  FIVE   INVASIONS   OF   KANSAS. 

breach  against  it.  For  more  than  a  week  it  continued,  while  deadly 
conflict  was  imminent,  I  do  not  dwell  on  the  heroism  by  which  it  was 
encountered,  or  the  mean  retreat  to  which  it  was  compelled  ;  for  that 
is  not  necessary  in  exhibiting  the  Crime  which  you  are  to  judge.  But 
I  cannot  forbear  to  add  other  features,  furnished  in  a  letter  written  at 
the  time  by  a  clergyman,  who  saw  and  was  part  of  what  he  describes. 

"  Our  citizens  have  been  shot  at,  and  in  two  instances  murdered,  our 
houses  invaded,  hay-ricks  burnt,  corn  and  other  provisions  plundered, 
cattle  driven  off,  all  communication  cut  off  between  us  and  the  States, 
wagons  on  the  way  to  us  with  provisions  stopped  and  plundered,  and 
the  drivers  taken  prisoners,  and  we  in  hourly  expectation  of  an  attack. 
Nearly  every  man  has  been  in  arms  in  the  village.  Fortifications  have 
been  thrown  up,  by  incessant  labor  night  and  day.  The  sound  of  the 
drum  and  the  tramp  of  armed  men  resounded  through  our  streets,  fam 
ilies  fleeing  with  their  household  goods  for  safety.  Day  before  yester 
day  the  report  of  cannon  was  heard  at  our  house,  from  the  direction  of 
Lecompton.  Last  Thursday  one  of  our  neighbors, — one  of  the  most 
peaceable  and  excellent  of  men,  from  Ohio, — on  his  way  home,  was 
set  upon  by  a  gang  of  twelve  men  on  horseback,  and  shot  down.  Over 
eight  hundred  men  are  gathered  under  arms  at  Lawrence.  As  yet  no 
act  of  violence  has  been  perpetrated  by  those  on  our  side.  No  blood  of 
retaliation  stains  our  hands.  We  stand,  and  are  ready  to  act,  purely 
in  the  defence  of  our  homes  and  lives." 

LXXIII. 

The  catalogue  is  not  yet  complete.  On  the  i5th  of  December,  when 
the  people  assembled  to  vote  on  the  Constitution  submitted  for  adop 
tion,  only  a  few  days  after  the  Treaty  of  Peace  between  the  Governor 
orf  the  one  side  and  the  town  of  Lawrence  on  the  other,  another  and 
fifth  irruption  was  made.  But  I  leave  all  this  untold.  Enough  of  these 
details  has  been  given. 

Five  several  times  and  more  have  these  invaders  entered  Kansas  in 
armed  array,  and  thus  five  several  times  and  more  have  they  trampled 
upon  the  organic  law  of  the  Territory.  These  extraordinary  expeditions 
are  simply  the  extraordinary  witnesses  to  successive,  uninterrupted  vio 
lence.  They  stand  out  conspicuous,  but  not  alone.  The  spirit  of  evil, 
in  which  they  had  their  origin,  is  wakeful  and  incessant.  From  the  be 
ginning  it  hung  upon  the  skirts  of  this  interesting  Territory,  harrowing 
its  peace,  disturbing  its  prosperity,  and  keeping  its  inhabitants  under 
the  painful  alarms  of  war.  All  security  of  person,  property,  and  labor 
was  overthrown ;  and  when  I  urge  this  incontrovertible  fact,  I  set  forth 


CIVILIZATION   AVERTS   HER   FACE.  2/9 

a  wrong  which  is  small  only  by  the  side  of  the  giant  wrong  for  the  con 
summation  of  which  all  this  is  done.  Sir,  what  is  man,  what  is  govern 
ment,  without  security,  in  the  absence  of  which  nor  man  nor  government 
can  proceed  in  development  or  enjoy  the  fruits  of  existence  ?  Without 
security  civilization  is  cramped  and-  dwarfed.  Without  security  there  is 
no  true  Freedom.  Nor  shall  I  say  too  much,  when  I  declare  that 
security,  guarded  of  course  by  its  parent  Freedom,  is  the  true  end  and 
aim  of  government.  Of  this  indispensable  boon  the  people  of  Kansas 
are  despoiled, — absolutely,  totally.  All  this  is  aggravated  by  the  nature 
of  their  pursuits,  rendering  them  peculiarly  sensitive  to  interruption,  and 
at  the  same  time  attesting  their  innocence.  They  are  for  the  most  part 
engaged  in  the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  which  from  time  immemorial  has 
been  the  sweet  employment  of  undisturbed  industry.  Contented  in  the 
returns  of  bounteous  Nature  and  the  shade  of  his  own  trees,  the  hus 
bandman  is  not  aggressive  ;  accustomed  to  produce,  and  not  to  destroy, 
he  is  essentially  peaceful,  unless  his  home  is  invaded,  when  his  arm  de 
rives  vigor  from  the  soil  he  treads,  and  his  soul  inspiration  from  the 
heavens  beneath  whose  canopy  he  daily  toils.  Such  are  the  people  of 
Kansas,  whose  security  has  been  overthrown.  Scenes  from  which  Civ 
ilization  averts  her  countenance  are  part  of  their  daily  life.  Border 
incursions,  which  in  barbarous  ages  or  barbarous  lands  fretted  and  har 
ried  an  exposed  people,  are  here  renewed,  with  this  peculiarity,  that 
our  border  robbers  do  not  simply  levy  blackmail  and  drive  off  a  few 
cattle,  like  those  who  acted  under  the  inspiration  of  the  Douglas  of 
other  days, — they  do  not  seize  a  few  persons,  and  sweep  them  away 
into  captivity,  like  the  African  slave-traders,  whom  we  brand  as  pirates, 
— but  they  commit  a  succession  of  deeds  in  which  border  sorrows  and 
African  wrongs  are  revived  together  on  American  soil,  while,  for  the 
time  being,  all  protection  is  annulled,  and  the  whole  Territory  is  en 
slaved. 

LXXIV. 

Private  griefs  mingle  their  poignancy  with  public  wrongs.  I  do  not 
dwell  on  the  anxieties  of  families  exposed  to  sudden  assault,  and  lying 
down  to  rest  with  the  alarms  of  war  ringing  in  their  ears,  not  knowing 
that  another  day  may  be  spared  to  them.  Throughout  this  bitter  win 
ter,  with  the  thermometer  at  thirty  degrees  below  zero,  the  citizens  of 
Lawrence  were  constrained  to  sleep  under  arms,  with  sentinels  pacing 
constant  watch  against  surprise.  Our  souls  are  wrung  by  individual  in- 


280  BOWIE-KNIVES   AND    REVOLVERS. 

stances.     In  vain  do  we  condemn  the  cruelties  of  another  age,  the  re 
finements  of  torture  to  which  men  were  doomed,  the  rack  and  thumb 
screw  of  the  Inquisition,  the  last  agonies  of  the  regicide  Ravaillac, 
"  Luke's  iron  crown,  and  Damien's  bed  of  steel ;  " 

for  kindred  outrages  disgrace  these  borders.  Murder  stalks,  Assassina 
tion  skulks  in  the  tall  grass  of  the  prairie,  and  the  vindictiveness  of  man 
assumes  unwonted  forms.  A  preacher  of  the  Gospel  has  been  ridden 
on  a  rail,  then  thrown  into  the  Missouri,  fastened  to  a  log,  and  left  to 
drift  down  its  muddy,  tortuous  current.  And  lately  we  have  the  tidings 
of  that  enormity  without  precedent,  a  deed  without  a  name,  where  a 
candidate  for  the  Legislature  was  most  brutally  gashed  with  knives  and 
hatchets,  and  then,  after  weltering  in  blood  on  the  snow-clad  earth, 
trundled  along,  with  gaping  wounds,  to  fall  dead  before  the  face  of  his 
wife.  It  is  common  to  drop  a  tear  of  sympathy  over  the  sorrows  of 
our  early  fathers,  exposed  to  the  stealthy  assault  of  the  savage  foe, — 
and  an  eminent  American  artist  has  pictured  this  scene  in  a  marble 
group,  on  the  front  of  the  National  Capitol,  where  the  uplifted  toma 
hawk  is  arrested  by  the  strong  arm  and  generous  countenance  of  the 
pioneer,  whose  wife  and  children  find  shelter  at  his  feet ;  but  now  the 
tear  must  be  dropped  over  the  sorrows  of  fellow-citizens  building  a  new 
State  in  Kansas,  and  exposed  to  the  perpetual  assault  of  murderous 
robbers  from  Missouri.  Hirelings,  picked  from  the  drunken  spew  and 
vomit  of  an  uneasy  civilization,  having  the  form  of  men, — 

"  Ay,  in  the  catalogue  ye  go  for  men  ; 

As  hounds  and  greyhounds,  mongrels,  spaniels,  curs, 
Shoughs,  water-rugs,  and  demi-wolves  are  clept 
All  by  the  name  of  dogs," — 

leashed  together  by  secret  signs  and  lodges,  renew  the  incredible  atroci 
ties  of  the  Assassins  and  the  Thugs, — showing  the  blind  submission  of 
the  Assassins  to  the  Old  Man  of  the  Mountain  in  robbing  Christians  on 
the  road  to  Jerusalem,  and  the  heartlessness  of  the  Thugs,  who,  avow 
ing  that  murder  is  their  religion,  waylay  travellers  on  the  great  road 
from  Agra  to  Delhi, — with  the  more  deadly  bowie-knife  for  the  dagger 
of  the  Assassin,  and  the  more  deadly  revolver  for  the  noose  of  the 
Thug. 

LXXV. 

In    these   invasions,  with   the    entire    subversion  of  all  security  in 
this  Territory,  the  plunder  of  the  ballot-box,  and  the  pollution  of  the 


HOW  THE   CRIME   WAS    DONE.  28l 

electoral  franchise,  I  show  simply  the  process  of  unprecedented  Crime. 
If  that  be  the  best  government  where  injury  to  a  single  citizen  is  re 
sented  as  injury  to  the  whole  State,  what  must  be  the  character  of  a 
government  which  leaves  a  whole  community  of  citizens  thus  exposed  ? 
In  the  outrage  upon  the  ballot-box,  even  without  the  illicit  fruits  which 
I  shall  soon  exhibit,  there  is  a  peculiar  crime,  of  the  deepest  dye, 
though  subordinate  to  the  final  Crime,  which  should  be  promptly 
avenged.  In  other  lands,  where  royalty  is  upheld,  it  is  a  special  offence 
to  rob  the  crown-jewels,  which  are  emblems  of  that  sovereignty  before 
which  the  loyal  subject  bows,  and  it  is  treason  to  be  found  in  adultery 
with  the  queen,  for  in  this  way  may  a  false  heir  be  imposed  upon  the 
State  ;  but  in  our  Republic  the  ballot-box  is  the  single  priceless  jewel 
of  that  sovereignty  which  we  respect,  and  the  electoral  franchise,  where 
are  born  the  rulers  of  a  free  people,  is  the  royal  bed  we  are  to  guard 
against  pollution.  In  this  plain  presentment,  whether  as  regards  se 
curity  or  as  regards  elections,  there  is  enough,  without  proceeding 
further,  to  justify  the  intervention  of  Congress,  promptly  and  com 
pletely,  to  throw  over  this  oppressed  people  the  impenetrable  shield  of 
the  Constitution  and  laws.  But  the  half  is  not  yet  told. 

As  every  point  in  a  wide-spread  horizon  radiates  from  a  common 
centre,  so  everything  said  or  done  in  this  vast  circle  of  Crime  radiates 
from  the  One  Idea,  that  Kansas,  at  all  hazards,  must  be  made  a  Slave 
State.  In  all  the  manifold  wickednesses  that  occur,  and  in  every  suc 
cessive  invasion,  this  One  Idea  is  ever  present,  as  Satanic  tempter, 
motive  power,  causing  cause.  Talk  of  "  one  idea  !  "  Here  it  is  with  a 
vengeance  ! 

To  accomplish  this  result,  three  things  are  attempted  :  first,  by  out 
rage  of  all  kinds,  to  drive  the  friends  of  Freedom  out  of  the  Territory ; 
secondly,  to  deter  others  from  coming ;  and,  thirdly,  to  obtain  complete 
control  of  the  Government.  The  process  of  driving  out,  and  also  of 
deterring  has  failed.  On  the  contrary,  the  friends  of  Freedom  there 
have  become  more  fixed  in  resolve  to  stay  and  fight  the  battle  which 
they  never  sought,  but  from  which  they  disdain  to  retreat, — while  the 
friends  of  Freedom  elsewhere  are  more  aroused  to  the  duty  of  timely 
succor  by  men  and  munitions  of  just  self-defence. 

While  defeated  in  the  first  two  processes,  the  conspirators  succeeded 
in  the  last.  By  the  violence  already  portrayed  at  the  election  of  the 
3oth  of  March,  when  the  polls  were  occupied  by  armed  hordes  from 
Missouri,  they  imposed  a  Legislature  upon  the  Territory,  and  thus, 
under  the  iron  mask  of  law,  established  a  Usurpation  not  less  complete 


282  FOREIGNERS   IMPOSE   A    CONSTITUTION. 

than  any  in  history.     That  this  was  done  I  proceed  to  prove.     Here  is 
the  evidence  : — 

LXXVI. 

1.  Only  in  this  way  can  this  extraordinary  expedition  be  adequately 
explained.     In  the  words  of  Moliere,  once  employed  by  John  Quincy 
Adams  in  the  other  House,  "  Que  diable  alia  lent-  Us  faire  dans  cette 
galere?"     What  did  they  go  into  the  Territory  for?     If  their  purposes 
were  peaceful,  as  has  been  suggested,  why  cannons,  arms,  flags,  num 
bers,  and  all  this  violence  ?     As  simple   citizens,   proceeding  to   the 
honest  exercise  of  the  electoral  franchise,  they  might  go  with  nothing 
more  than  a  pilgrim's  staff.     Philosophy  always  seeks  a  sufficient  cause, 
and  only  in  the  One  Idea  already  presented  can  a  cause  be  found  in 
any  degree  commensurate  with  the  Crime  ;  and  this  becomes  so  only 
when  we  consider  the  mad  fanaticism  of  Slavery. 

2.  Public  notoriety  steps  forward  to  confirm  the  suggestion  of  reason. 
In  every  place  where  Truth  can  freely  travel  it  is  asserted  and  under 
stood  that  the  Legislature  was  imposed  upon  Kansas  by  foreigners  from 
Missouri ;    and   this   universal  voice   is   now  received  as   undeniable 
verity. 

3.  It  is  also  attested  by  harangues  of  the  conspirators.     Here  is 
what  Stringfellow  said  before  the  invasion  : — 

"  To  those  who  have  qualms  of  conscience  as  to  violating  laws, 
State  or  National,  the  time  has  come  when  such  impositions  must  be 
disregarded,  as  your  rights  and  property  are  in  danger;  and  I  advise, 
you,  one  and  all,  to  enter  every  election  district  in  Kansas,  in  defiance  of 
Reedcr  and  his  vile  myrmidons,  and  vote  at  the  point  of  the  bowie-knife 
a?id  revolver.  Neither  give  nor  take  quarter,  as  our  cause  demands  it. 
It  is  enough  that  the  slaveholding  interest  wills  it,  from  which  there  is 
no  appeal.  What  right  has  Governor  Reeder  to  rule  Missourians  in 
Kansas  ?  His  proclamation  and  prescribed  oath  must  be  repudiated. 
It  is  your  interest  to  do  so.  Mind  that  Slavery  is  established  where  it 
is  not  prohibited." 

Here  is  what  Atchison  said  after  the  invasion  : — 

"  Well,  what  next  ?  Why,  an  election  for  members  of  the  Legislature 
to  organize  the  Territory  must  be  held.  What  did  I  advise  you  to  do 
then  ?  Why,  meet  them  on  their  own  ground,  and  beat  them  at  their 
own  game  again  ;  and  cold  and  inclement  as  the  weather  was,  I  went 
over  with  a  company  of  men.  My  object  in  going  was  not  to  vote.  I 
had  no  right  to  vote,  unless  1  had  disfranchised  myself  in  Missouri.  I 
was  not  within  two  miles  of  a  voting-place.  My  object  in  going  was 


SQUATTER  SOVEREIGNTY.  283 

not  to  vote,  but  to  settle  a  difficulty  between  two  of  our  candidates  : 
and  the  Abolitionists  of  the  North  said,  and  published  it  abroad,  that 
Atchison  was  there  with  bowie-knife  and  revolver, — and,  by  God,  '/  was 
true  !  I  never  did  go  into  that  Territory,  I  never  intend  to  go  into 
that  Territory,  without  being  prepared  for  all  such  kind  of  cattle. 
Well,  \ve  beat  them,  and  Governor  Reeder  gave  certificates  to  a 
majority  of  all  the  members  of  both  Houses,  and  then,  after  they  were 
organized,  as  everybody  will  admit,  they  were  the  only  competent  per 
sons  to  say  who  were  and  who  were  not  members  of  the  same." 

4.  It  is  confirmed  by  contemporaneous  admission  of  The  Squatter 
Sovereign,  a  paper  published  at  Atchison,  and  at  once  the  organ  of 
the  President  and  of  these  Borderers,  which,  under  date  of  ist  April, 
thus  recounts  the  victory  : — 

"INDEPENDENCE,  [MISSOURI,]  March  31,  1855. 

"  Several  hundred  emigrants  from  Kansas  have  just  entered  our  city. 
They  were  preceded  by  the  Westport  and  Independence  brass  bands. 
They  came  in  at  the  west  side  of  the  public  square,  and  proceeded  en 
tirely  around  it,  the  bands  cheering  us  with  fine  music,  and  the  emi 
grants  with  good  news.  Immediately  following  the  bands  were  about 
two  hundred  horsemen  in  regular  order ;  following  these  were  one  hun 
dred  and  fifty  wagons,  carriages,  etc.  They  gave  repeated  cheers  for 
Kansas  and  Missouri.  They  report  that  not  an  Anti-slavery  man  will 
be  in  the  Legislature  of  Kansas.  We  have  made  a  clean  sweep" 

5.  It  is  also  confirmed  by  contemporaneous  testimony  of  another 
paper,  always  faithful  to  Slavery,  the  "  New  York  Herald,"  in  the  letter 
of  a  correspondent  from  Brunswick,  Missouri,  under  date  of  2oth  April, 
1855=- 

"  From  five  to  seven  thousand  men  started  from  Missouri  to  attend 
the  election,  some  to  remove,  but  the  most  to  return  to  their  families, 
with  an  intention,  if  they  liked  the  Territory,  to  make  it  their  permanent 
abode  at  the  earliest  moment  practicable.  But  they  intended  to  vote. 
The  Missourians  were,  many  of  them,  Douglas  men.  There  were  one 
hundred  and  fifty  voters  from  this  county,  one  hundred  and  seventy-five 
from  Howard,  and  one  hundred  from  Cooper.  Indeed,  every  county 
furnished  its  quota ;  and  when  they  set  out,  it  looked  like  an  army. 

....   They  were  armed And,  as  there  were  no  houses  in  the 

Territory,  they  carried  tents.  Their  mission  was  a  peaceable  one, — to 
vote,  and  to  drive  down  stakes  for  their  future  homes.  After  the  elec 
tion  some  fifteen  hundred  of  the  voters  sent  a  committee  to  Mr.  Reeder 
to  ascertain  if  it  was  his  purpose  to  ratify  the  election.  He  answered 
that  it  was,  and  said  the  majority  at  an  election  must  carry  the  day. 
But  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that  the  fifteen  hundred,  apprehending  that 
the  Governor  might  attempt  to  play  the  tyrant, — since  his  conduct  has 
already  been  insidious  and  unjust, — wore  on  their  hats  bunches  of  hemp. 


284  IRREFRAGABLE  TESTIMONY. 

They  were  resolved,  if  a  tyrant  attempted  to  trample  upon  the  rights  of 
the  sovereign  people,  to  hang  him." 

6.  It  is  again  confirmed  by  testimony  of  a  lady  for  five  years  resident 
in  Western  Missouri,  who  thus  writes  in  a  letter  published  in  the  "New 
Haven  Register  : " — 

"  MIAMI,  SALINE  COUNTY,  November  26,  1855. 

"  You  ask  me  to  tell  you  something  about'the  Kansas  and  Missouri 
troubles.  Of  course  you  know  in  what  they  have  originated.  There  is 
no  denying  that  the  Missourians  have  determined  to  control  tJie  elections, 
if  possible  ;  and  I  do  not  know  that  their  measures  would  be  justifiable, 
except  upon  the  principle  of  self-preservation  ;  and  that,  you  know,  is 
the  first  law  of  Nature," 

7.  And  it  is  confirmed  still  further  by  the  Circular  of  the  Emigration 
Society  of  Lafayette  County,  in  Missouri,  dated  as  late  as  25th  March, 
1856,  where  the  efforts  of  Missourians  are  openly  confessed. 

"The  western  counties  of  Missouri  have  for  the. last  two  years  been 
heavily  taxed,  both  in  money  and  time,  in  fighting  the  battles  of  the 
South.  Lafayette  County  alone  has  expended  more  than  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars  in  money,  and  as  much  or  more  in  time.  Up  to  this 
time  the  border  counties  of  Missouri  hare  upheld  and  maintained  the 
rights  and  interests  of  the  South  in  this  struggle,  unassisted,  and  not  un 
successfully.  But  the  Abolitionists,  staking  their  a,ll  upon  the  Kansas 
issue,  and  hesitating  at  no  means,  fair  or  foul,  are  moving  heaven  and 
earth  to  render  that  beautiful  Territory  a  Free  Stated 

8.  Here,  also,  is  amplest  testimony  to  the  Usurpation,  by  the   "  In 
telligencer,"  a  leading  paper  of  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  made  in  the  ensu 
ing  summer. 

"Atchison  and  Stringfellow,  with  their  Missouri  followers,  over 
whelmed  the  settlers  in  Kansas,  browbeat  and  bullied  them,  and  took 
the  Government  from  their  hands.  Missouri  votes  elected  the  present 
body  of  men,  who  insult  public  intelligence  and  popular  rights  by  styl 
ing  themselves  '  the  Legislature  of  Kansas.'  This  body  of  men  are 
helping  themselves  to  fat  speculations  by  locating  the  '  seat  of  Govern 
ment'  and  getting  town  lots  for  their  votes.  They  are  passing  laws 
disfranchising  all  the  citizens  of  Kansas  who  do  not  believe  Negro 
Slavery  to  be  a  Christian  institution  and  a  national  blessing.  They  are 
proposing  to  punish  with  imprisonment  the  utterance  of  views  inconsist 
ent  with  their  own.  And  they  are  trying  to  perpetuate  their  preposter 
ous  and  infernal  tyranny  by  appointing  for  a  term  of  years  creatures  of 
their  own,  as  commissioners  in  every  county,  to  lay  and  collect  taxes, 
and  see  that  the  laws  they  are  passing  are  faithfully  executed.  Has  this 
age  anything  to  compare  with  these  acts  in  audacity  ?" 

9.  In  harmony  with  all  these  is  the  authoritative  declaration  of  Gov- 


SLAVERY  ERECTED  IN  KANSAS.  285 

ernor  Reeder,  in  a  speech  to  his  neighbors  at  Easton,  Pennsylvania,  at 
the  end  of  April,  1855,  and  immediately  afterwards  published  in  the 
Washington  "  Union."  Here  it  is. 

"  It  was,  indeed,  too  true  that  Kansas  had  been  invaded,  conquered, 
subjugated,  by  an  armed  force  from  beyond  her  borders,  led  on  by  a 
fanatical  spirit,  trampling  under  foot  the  principles  of  the  Kansas  Bill 
and  the  right  of  suffrage." 

10.  In  similar  harmony  is  the  complaint  of  the  people  of  Kansas,  in 
public    meeting   at  Big  Springs,  on   the  5th  of  September,  1855,  em 
bodied  in  these  words  : — 

"  Resolved,  That  the  body  of  men  who  for  the  last  two  months  have 
been  passing  laws  for  the  people  of  our  Territory,  moved,  counselled, 
and  dictated  to  by  the  demagogues  of  Missouri,  are  to  us  a  foreign 
body,  representing  only  the  lawless  invaders  who  elected  them,  and  not 
the  people  of  the  Territory, — that  we  repudiate  their  action,  as  the 
monstrous  consummation  of  an  act  of  violence,  usurpation,  and  fraud, 
unparalleled  in  the  history  of  the  Union,  and  worthy  only  of  men  un 
fitted  for  the  duties  and  regardless  of  the  responsibilities  of  Repub 
licans." 

11.  Finally,  the  invasion  which  ended  in  the  Usurpation  is  clearly 
established  from   official  Minutes  laid  on  our  table  by  the  President. 
But  the  effect  of  this  testimony  has  been  so  amply  exposed  by  the  Sen 
ator  from  Vermont   [Mr.   COLLAMER],   in   his   able  and   indefatigable 
argument,  that  I  content  myself  with  simply  referring  to  it.     * 

LXXVII. 

Thus  was  the  Crime  consummated.  Slavery  stands  erect,  clanking 
its  chains  on  the  Territory  of  Kansas,  surrounded  by  a  code  of  death, 
and  trampling  upon  all  cherished  liberties,  whether  of  speech,  the  press, 
the  bar,  the  trial  by  jury,  or  the  electoral  franchise.  And,  Sir,  all  this 
is  done,  not  merely  to  introduce  a  wrong  which  in  itself  is  a  denial  of 
all  rights,  and  in  dread  of  which  mothers  have  taken  the  lives  of  their 
offspring, — not  merely,  as  is  sometimes  said,  to  protect  Slavery  in  Mis 
souri,  since  it  is  futile  for  this  State  to  complain  of  Freedom  on  the 
side  of  Kansas,  when  Freedom  exists  without  complaint  on  the  side  of 
Iowa,  and  also  on  the  side  of  Illinois, — but  it  is  done  for  the  sake  of 
political  power,  in  order  to  bring  two  new  slaveholding  Senators  upon 
this  floor,  and  thus  to  fortify  in  the  National  Government  the  desperate 
chances  of  a  waning  Oligarchy.  As  the  gallant  ship,  voyaging  on 
pleasant  summer  seas,  is  assailed  by  a  pirate  crew,  and  plundered  of  its 


286  APOLOGIES   FOR  THE   CRIME. 

doubloons  and  dollars,  so  is  this  beautiful  Territory  now  assailed  in 
peace  and  prosperity,  and  robbed  of  its  political  power  for  the  sake  of 
Slavery.  Even  now  the  black  flag  of  the  land  pirates  from  Missouri 
waves  at  the  mast-head  ;  in  their  laws  you  hear  the  pirate  yell  and  see 
the  flash  of  the  pirate  knife ;  while,  incredible  to  relate,  the  President, 
gathering  the  Slave  Power  at  his  back,  testifies  a  pirate  sympathy. 

Sir,  all  this  was  done  in  the  name  of  Popular  Sovereignty.  And 
this  is  the  close  of  the  tragedy.  Popular  Sovereignty,  which,  when 
truly  understood,  is  a  fountain  of  just  power,  has  ended  in  Popular 
Slavery, — not  in  the  subjection  of  the  unhappy  African  race  merely,  but 
of  this  proud  Caucasian  blood  which  you  boast.  The  profession  with 
which  you  began,  of  All  by  the  People,  is  lost  in  the  wretched  reality  of 
Nothing  for  the  People.  Popular  Sovereignty,  in  whose  deceitful  name 
plighted  faith  was  broken  and  an  ancient  Landmark  of.  Breedom  over 
turned,  now  lifts  itself  before  us  like  Sin  in  the  terrible  picture  of 
Milton,  which 

"  seemed  woman  to  the  waist,  and  fair, 
But  ended  foul  in  many  a  scaly  fold 
Voluminous  and  vast,  a  serpent  armed 
With  mortal  sting :  about  her  middle  round 
A  cry  of  hell-hounds  never  ceasing  barked 
With  wide  Cerberean  mouths  full  loud,  and  rung 
A  hideous  peal ;  yet,  when  they  list,  would  creep, 
If  aught  disturbed  their  noise,  into  her  womb, 
And  kennel  there,  yet  there  still  barked  and  howled 
i  Within,  unseen." 

The  image  is  complete  at  all  points  ;  and  with  this  exposure  I  take  my 
leave  of  the  Crime  against  Kansas. 

LXXVIII. 

Emerging  from  all  the  blackness  of  this  Crime,  where  we  seem  to 
have  been  lost,  as  in  a  savage  wood,  and  turning  our  backs  upon  it,  as 
upon  desolation  and  death,  from  which,  while  others  have  suffered,  we 
have  escaped,  I  come  now  to  THE  APOLOGIES  which  the  Crime  has 
found.  Sir,  well  may  you  start  at  the  suggestion,  that  such  a  series  of 
wrongs,  so  clearly  proved  by  various  testimony,  so  openly  confessed  by 
the  wrong-doers,  and  so  widely  recognized  throughout  the  country, 
should  find  apologists.  But  partisan  spirit,  now,  as  in  other  days,  hesi 
tates  at  nothing.  Great  crimes  of  history  have  never  been  without 


THE   APOLOGY   TYRANNICAL.  28/ 

apologies.  The  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew,  which  you  now  instinct 
ively  condemn,  was  at  the  time  applauded  in  high  quarters,  and  even 
commemorated  by  a  Papal  medal,  which  may  still  be  procured  at 
Rome, — as  the  Crime  against  Kansas,  which  is  hardly  less  conspicuous 
in  dreadful  eminence,  has  been  shielded  on  this  floor  by  extenuating 
words,  and  even  by  a  Presidential  message,  which,  like  the  Papal 
medal,  can  never  be  forgotten  in  considering  the  perversity  of  men. 

Sir,  the  crime  cannot  be  denied.  The  President  himself  has  admit 
ted  "  illegal  and  reprehensible  "  conduct.  To  such  conclusion  he  was 
compelled  by  irresistible  evidence.  But  what  he  mildly  describes  I 
openly  denounce.  Senators  may  affect  to  put  it  aside  by  a  sneer,  or  to 
reason  it  away  by  figures,  or  to  explain  it  by  theory,  such  as  desperate 
invention  has  produced  on  this  floor,  that  the  Assassins  and  Thugs  of 
Missouri  are  in  reality  citizens  of  Kansas  ;  but  all  these  efforts,  so  far 
as  made,  are  only  tokens  of  weakness,  while  to  the  original  Crime  they 
add  another  offence  of  false  testimony  against  innocent  and  suffering 
men.  But  the  Apologies  for  the  Crime  are  worse  than  the  efforts  at 
denial.  In  essential  heartlessness  they  identify  their  authors  with  the 
great  iniquity. 

They  are  four  in  number,  and  fourfold  in  character.  The  first  is  the 
Apology  tyrannical ;  the  second,  \\iQApology  imbecile;  the  third,  the 
Apology  absurd ;  and  the  fourth,  the  Apology  infamous.  This  is  all. 
Tyranny,  imbecility,  absurdity,  and  infamy  all  unite  to  dance,  like  the 
weird  sisters,  about  this  Crime. 


LXXIX. 

The  Apology  tyrannical  is  founded  on  the  mistaken  act  of  Governor 
Reeder,  in  authenticating  the  Usurping  Legislature,  by  which  it  is  as 
serted,  that,  whatever  may  have  been  the  actual  force  or  fraud  in  its 
election,  the  people  of  Kansas  are  effectually  concluded,  and  the  whole 
proceeding  is  placed  under  formal  sanction  of  law.  According  to  this 
assumption,  complaint  is  now  in  vain,  and  it  only  remains  that  Con 
gress  should  sit  and  hearken  to  it,  without  correcting  the  wrong,  as  the 
ancient  tyrant  listened  and  granted  no  redress  to  the  human  moans  that 
issued  from  the  heated  brazen  bull  which  .subtile  cruelty  had  devised. 
This  I  call  the  Apology  of  technicality  inspired  by  tyranny. 

The  facts  on  this  head  are  few  and  plain.  Governor  Reeder,  after 
allowing  only  five  days  for  objections  to  the  returns, — a  space  of  time 


288  APOLOGY   IMBECILE. 

unreasonably  brief  in  that  extensive  Territory, — declared  a  majority  of 
the  members  of  the  Council  and  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
"duly  elected,"  withheld  certificates  from  certain  others,  because  of 
satisfactory  proof  that  they  were  not  duly  elected,  and  appointed  a 
day  for  new  elections  to  supply  these  vacancies.  Afterwards,  by  formal 
message,  he  recognized  the  Legislature  as  a  legal  body,  and  when  he 
vetoed  their  act  of  adjournment  to  the  neighborhood  of  Missouri,  he 
did  it  simply  on  the  ground  of  illegality  in  such  adjournment  under  the 
organic  law.  Now  to  every  assumption  founded  on  these  facts 
there  are  two  satisfactory  replies  :  first,  that  no  certificate  of  the  Gov 
ernor  can  do  more  than  authenticate  a  subsisting  legal  act,  without  of 
itself  infusing  legality  where  the  essence  of  legality  is  not  already;  and, 
secondly,  that  violence  or  fraud,  wherever  disclosed,  vitiates  completely 
every  proceeding.  In  denying  these  principles,  you  place  the  certificate 
above  the  thing  certified,  and  give  a  perpetual  lease  to  violence  and 
fraud,  merely  because  at  an  ephemeral  moment  they  are  unquestioned. 
This  will  not  do. 

Sir,  I  am  no  apologist  for  Governor  Reeder.  There  is  sad  reason  to 
believe  that  he  went  to  Kansas  originally  as  tool  of  the  President ;  but 
his  simple  nature,  nurtured  in  the  atmosphere  of  Pennsylvania,  revolted 
at  the  service  required,  and  he  turned  from  his  patron  to  duty.  Grievous 
ly  did  he  err  in  yielding  to  the  Legislature  any  act  of  authentication  :  but 
in  some  measure  he  has  answered  for  this  error  by  determined  effort  since 
to  expose  the  utter  illegality  of  that  body,  which  he  now  repudiates  en 
tirely.  It  was  said  of  certain  Roman  Emperors,  who  did  infinite  mis 
chief  in  their  beginnings  and  infinite  good  towards  their  end,  that  they 
should  never  have  been  born  or  never  died  ;  and  I  would  apply  the 
same  to  the  official  life  of  this  Kansas  Governor.  At  all  events,  I  dis 
miss  the  Apology  founded  on  his  acts,  as  the  utterance  of  Tyranny  by 
the  voice  of  Law,  transcending  the  declaration  of  the  pedantic  judge, 
in  the  British  Parliament,  on  the  eve  of  our  Revolution,  that  our  fa 
thers,  notwithstanding  their  complaints,  were  in  reality  represented  in 
Parliament,  inasmuch  as  their  lands,  under  the  original  charters,  were 
held  "  in  common  socage,  as  of  the  manor  of  East  Greenwich  in  Kent," 
which,  being  duly  represented,  carried  with  it  all  the  Colonies.  Thus 
in  another  age  has  Tyranny  assumed  the  voice  of  Law. 

Next  comes  the  Apology  imbecile,  which  is  founded  on  the  alleged 
want  of  power  in  the  President  to  arrest  this  Crime.  It  is  openly  as 
serted,  that,  under  existing  laws,  the  Chief  Magistrate  has  no  authority 
to  interfere  in  Kansas  for  this  purpose.  Such  is  the  broad  statement, 


APOLOGY   ABSURD.  289 

which,  even  if  correct,  furnishes  no  Apology  for  any  proposed  ratifica- 
lion  of  the  Crime,  but  which  is  in  reality  untrue;  and  this  I  call  the 
Apology  of  imbecility. 

LXXX. 

Next  comes  the  Apology  absurd,  which  is,  indeed,  in  the  nature  of 
pretext.  It  is  alleged  that  a  small  printed  pamphlet,  containing  the 
"Constitution  and  Ritual  of  the  Grand  Encampment  and  Regiments 
of  the  Kansas  Legion,"  was  taken  from  the  person  of  one  George  F. 
Warren,  who  attempted  to  avoid  detection  by  chewing  it.  The  oaths 
and  grandiose  titles  of  the  pretended  Legion  are  all  set  forth,  and  this 
poor  mummery  of  a  secret  society,  which  existed  only  on  paper,  is 
gravely  introduced  on  this  floor,  in  order  to  extenuate  the  Crime  against 
Kansas.  It  has  bee,n  paraded  in  more  than  one  speech,  and  even 
stuffed  into  the  report  of  the  Committee. 

A  part  of  the  obligations  assumed  by  the  members  of  this  Legion 
shows  why  it  is  thus  pursued,  while  also  attesting  its  innocence.  It  is 
as  follows  : 

"I  will  never  knowingly  propose  a  person  for  membership  in  this 
order  who  is  not  in  favor  of  making  Kansas  a  Free  State,  and  whom  I 
feel  satisfied  will  exert  his  entire  influence  to  bring  about  this  result.  1 
will  support,  maintain,  and  abide  by  any  honorable  movement  made  by 
the  organization  to  secure  this  great  end,  which  will  not  conflict  with  the 
laws  of  the  country  and  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States" 

Kansas  is  to  be  made  a  Free  State  by  an  honorable  movement  which 
will  not  conflict  with  the  laws  and  the  Constitution.  That  is  the  object 
of  the  organization,  declared  in  the  very  words  of  the  initiatory  obliga 
tion.  Where  is  the  wrong  in  this  ?  What  is  there  here  to  cast  re 
proach,  or  even  suspicion,  upon  the  people  of  Kansas  ?  Grant  that 
the  Legion  was  constituted,  can  you  extract  from  it  any  Apology  for 
the  original  Crime,  or  for  its  present  ratification  ?  Secret  societies, 
with  extravagant  oaths,  are  justly  offensive  ;  but  who  can  find  in  this 
mistaken  machinery  any  excuse  for  the  denial  of  all  rights  to  the 
people  of  Kansas  ?  All  this  I  say  on  the  supposition  that  the  society 
is  a  reality,  which  it  is  not.  Existing  in  the  fantastic  brains  of  a  few 
persons  only,  it  never  had  any  practical  life.  It  was  n^ever  organized. 
The  whole  tale,  with  the  mode  of  obtaining  the  copy  of  the  Constitu 
tion,  is  at  once  cock -and  bull  story  and  mare's  nest, — trivial  as  the 
former,  absurd  as  the  latter, — and  to  be  dismissed,  with  the  Apology 
19 


290  REMEDIES  PROPOSED. 

founded  upon  it,  to  the  derision  which  triviality  and  absurdity  justly  re 
ceive. 

It  only  remains,  under  this  head,  that  I  should  speak  of  the  Apology 
infamous, — founded  on  false  testimony  against  the  Emigrant  Aid  Com 
pany,  and  assumptions  of  duty  more  false  than  the  testimony.  Defying 
truth  and  mocking  decency,  this  Apology  excels  all  others  in  futility  and 
audacity,  while,  from  its  utter  hollowness,  it  proves  the  utter  impotence 
of  the  conspirators  to  defend  their  Crime.  Falsehood,  always  infamous, 
in  this  case  arouses  unwonted  scorn.  An  association  of  sincere  be 
nevolence,  faithful  to  the  Constitution  and  laws,  whose  only  fortifications 
are  hotels,  school-houses,  and  churches,  whose  only  weapons  are  saw-mills, 
tools,  and  books,  whose  mission  is  peace  and  good-will,  is  grossly  assailed 
on  this  floor,  and  an  errand  of  blameless  virtue  made  the  pretext  for  an 
unpardonable  Crime.  Nay,  more, — the  innocent  are  sacrificed,  and 
the  guilty  set  at  liberty.  They  who  seek  to  do  the  mission  of  the  Sav 
iour  are  scourged  and  crucified,  while  the  murderer,  Barabbas,  with  the 
sympathy  of  the  chief  priests,  goes  at  large.  *  * 


LXXXI. 

From  this  ample  survey,  where  one  obstruction  after  another  had 
been  removed,  I  now  pass,  in  the  third  place,  to  the  consideration  of 
the  remedies  proposed,  ending  with  THE  TRUE  REMEDY. 

The  Remedy  should  be  coextensive  with  the  original  Wrong ;  and 
since,  by  the  passage  of  the  Nebraska  Bill,  not  only  Kansas,  but  also 
Nebraska,  Minnesota,  Washington,  and  even  Oregon,  are  opened  to 
Slavery,  the  original  Prohibition  should  be  restored  to  its  full  activity 
throughout  these  various  Territories.  By  such  happy  restoration,  made 
•in  good  faith,  the  whole  country  would  be  replaced  in  the  condition  i'. 
enjoyed  before  the  introduction  of  that  dishonest  measure.  Here  is 
the  Alpha  and  the  Omega  of  our  aim  in  this  immediate  controversy. 
•But  no  such  extensive  measure  is  now  in  question.  The  Crime  against 
•Kansas  is  special,  and  all  else  is  absorbed  in  the  special  remedies  for 
it.  Of  these  I  shall  now  speak. 

As  the  Apologies  were  fourfold,  so  are  the  proposed  Remedies  four 
fold  ;  and  they  range  themselves  in  natural  order,  under  designations 
which  so  truly  disclose  their  character  as  even  to  supersede  argument. 
First,  we  have  the  Remedy  of  Tyranny ;  next,  the  Remedy  of  Folly ; 
next,  the  Remedy  of  Injustice  and  Civil  War  ;  and,  fourthly,  the  Remedy 


REMEDY   OF   TYRANNY — OF   FOLLY.  2QI 

of  Justice  and  Peace.  There  are  the  four  caskets  ;  and  you  are  to  de 
termine  which  shall  be  opened  by  Senatorial  votes. 

There  is  the  Remedy  of  Tyranny,  which,  like  its  complement,  the 
Apology  of  Tyranny, — though  espoused  on  this  floor,  especially  by  the 
Senator  from  Illinois, — proceeds  from  the  President,  and  is  embodied 
in  a  special  message.  It  proposes  enforced  obedience  to  the  existing 
laws  of  Kansas,  "whether  Federal  or  local"  when,  in  fact,  Kansas  has 
no  "  local "  laws,  except  those  imposed  by  the  Usurpation  from  Mis 
souri,  and  it  calls  for  additional  appropriations  to  complete  this  work  of 
tyranny. 

I  shall  not  follow  the  President  in  his  elaborate  endeavor  to  prejudge 
the  contested  election  now  pending  in  the  House  of  Representatives ; 
for  this  whole  matter  belongs  to  the  privileges  of  that  body,  and  neither 
the  President  nor  the  Senate  has  a  right  to  intermeddle  therewith.  I 
do  not  touch  it.  But  now,  while  dismissing  it,  I  should  not  pardon  my 
self  if  I  failed  to  add,  that  any  person  who  founds  his  claim  to  a  seat 
in  Congress  on  the  pretended  votes  of  hirelings  from  another  State, 
with  no  home  on  the  soil  of  Kansas,  plays  the  part  of  Anacharsis 
Clootz,  who,  at  the  bar  of  the  French  Convention,  undertook  to  repre 
sent  nations  that  knew  him  not,  or,  if  they  knew  him,  scorned  him,  with 
this  difference,  that  in  our  American  case  the  excessive  farce  of  the 
transaction  cannot  cover  its  tragedy.  But  all  this  I  put  aside,  to  deal 
only  with  what  is  legitimately  before  the  Senate.  *  *  * 


LXXXII. 

Next  comes  Remedy  of  Folly,  which,  indeed,  is  also  a  Remedy  of 
Tyranny ;  but  its  Folly  is  so  surpassing  as  to  eclipse  even  its  Tyranny. 
It  does  not  proceed  from  the  President.  With  this  proposition  he  is 
not  in  any  way  chargeable.  It  comes  from  the  Senator  from  South 
Carolina,  who,  at  the  close  of  a  long  speech,  offered  it  as  his  single  con 
tribution  to  the  adjustment  of  this  question,  and  who  thus  far  stands 
alone  in  its  support.  It  might,  therefore,  fitly  bear  his  name  ;  but  that 
which  I  now  give  to  it  is  a  more  suggestive  synonym. 

This  proposition,  nakedly  expressed,  is,  that  the  people  of  Kansas 
should  be  deprived  of  their  arms.  That  I  may  not  do  the  least  injus 
tice  to  the  Senator,  I  quote  his  precise  words. 

"The  President  of  the  United  States  is  under  the  highest  and  most 
solemn  obligations  to  interpose  ;  and  if  I  were  to  indicate  the  mannei  in 


292  REMEDY   OF   CIVIL   WAR. 

which  he  should  interpose  in  Kansas,  I  would  point  out  the  old  Common 
Law  process.  I  would  serve  a  warrant  on  Sharp's  rifles  ;  and  if  Sharp's 
rifles  did  not  answer  the  summons,  and  come  into  court  on  a  day  cer 
tain,  or  if  they  resisted  the  Sheriff,  I  would  summon  tine  posse  comitatus, 
and  I  would  have  Colonel  Sumner's  regiment  to  be  part  of  that  posse 
comitatus" 

Really,  Sir,  has  it  come  to  this  ?  The  rifle  has  ever  been  the  com 
panion  of  the  pioneer,  and,  under  God,  his  tutelary  protector  against 
the  red  man  and  the  beast  of  the  forest.  Never  was  this  efficient 
weapon  more  needed  in  just  self-defence  than  now  in  Kansas;  and  at 
least  one  article  in  our  National  Constitution  must  be  blotted  out  be 
fore  the  complete  right  to  it  can  be  in  any  way  impeached.  And  yet 
such  is  the  madness  of  the  hour,  that,  in  defiance  of  the  solemn  guar 
anty  in  the  Amendments  to  the  Constitution,  that  "  the  right  of  the 
people  to  keep  and  bear  arms  shall  not  be  infringed,"  the  people  of 
Kansas  are  arraigned  for  keeping  and  bearing  arms,  and  the  Senator 
from  South  Carolina  has  the  face  to  say  openly  on  this  floor  that  they 
should  be  disarmed, — of  course  that  the  fanatics  of  Slavery,  his  allies 
and  constituents,  may  meet  no  impediment.  Sir,  the  Senator  is  vener- 
erable  with  years  ;  he  is  reputed  also  to  have  worn  at  home,  in  the 
State  he  represents,  judicial  honors  ;  and  he  is  placed  here  at  the  head 
of  an  important  Committee  occupied  particularly  with  questions  of 
law ;  but  neither  his  years,  nor  his  position,  past  or  present,  can  give 
respectability  to  the  demand  he  makes,  or  save  him  from  indignant 
condemnation,  when,  to  compass  the  wretched  purposes  of  a  wretched 
cause,  he  thus  proposes  to  trample  on  one  of  the  plainest  provisions  of 
Constitutional  Liberty. 


LXXXIII. 

Next  comes  the  Remedy  of  Injustice  and  Civil  War, — organized  by 
Acts  of  Congress.  This  proposition,  which  is  also  an  offshoot  of  the 
original  Remedy  of  Tyranny,  proceeds  from  the  Senator  of  Illinois 
[Mr.  DOUGLAS],  with  the  sanction  of  the  Committee  on  Territories,  and 
is  embodied  in  the  bill  now  pressed  to  a  vote. 

By  this  bill  it  is  proposed  as  follows  : — 

"  That,  whenever  it  shall  appear,  by  a  census  to  be  taken  under  the 
direction  of  the  Governor,  by  the  authority  of  the  Legislature,  that 
there  shall  be  93,420  inhabitants  (that  being  the  number  required  by 
the  present  ratio  of  representation  for  a  member  of  Congress)  within. 


USURPATION   MUST  BE   OVERTHROWN.  293 

the  limits  hereafter  described  as  the  Territory  of  Kansas,  the  Legisla 
ture  of  said  Territory  shall  be,  and  is  hereby,  authorized  to  provide  by  law 
for  the  election  of  delegates  by  the  people  of  said  Territory,  to  assemble 
in  Convention  and  form  a  Constitution  and  State  Government,  prepara 
tory  to  their  admission  into  the  Union  on  an  equal  footing  with  the 
original  States  in  all  respects  whatsoever,  by  the  name  of  the  State  of 
Kansas." 

Now,  Sir,  consider  these  words  carefully,  and  you  will  see,  that, 
however  plausible  and  velvet-pawed  they  may  seem,  yet  in  reality  they 
are  most  unjust  and  cruel.  While  affecting  to  initiate  honest  proceed 
ings  for  the  formation  of  a  State,  they  furnish  to  this  Territory  no  re 
dress  for  the  Crime  under  which  it  suffers  ;  nay,  they  recognize  the  very 
Usurpation  in  which  the  Crime  ends,  and  proceed  to  endow  it  with 
new  prerogatives.  It  is  by  authority  of  the  Legislature  that  the  census 
is  to  be  taken,  which  is  the  first  step  in  the  work.  It  is  also  by  author 
ity  of  the  Legislature  that  a  Convention  is  to  be  called  for  the  formation 
of  a  Constitution,  which  is  the  second  step.  But  the  Legislature  is  not 
obliged  to  take  either  of  these  steps.  To  its  absolute  willfulness  is  it 
left  to  act  or  not  to  act  in  the  premises.  And  since,  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  business,  there  can  be  no  action  of  the  Legislature  till  Jan- 
nary  of  the  next  year,  all  these  steps,  which  are  preliminary  in  character, 
are  postponed  till  after  that  distant  day, — thus  keeping  this  great  ques 
tion  open,  to  distract  and  irritate  the  country.  Clearly  this  is  not  what 
is  required.  The  country  desires  peace  at  once,  and  is  determined  to 
have  it.  But  this  objection  is  slight  by  the  side  of  the  glaring  tyranny, 
that,  in  recognizing  the  Legislature,  and  conferring  upon  it  these  new 
powers,  the  bill  recognizes  the  existing  Usurpation,  not  only  as  the 
authentic  government  of  the  Territory  for  the  time  being,  but  also  as 
possessing  a  creative  power  to  reproduce  itself  in  the  new  State.  Pass 
this  bill,  and  you  enlist  Congress  in  the  conspiracy,  not  only  to  keep 
the  people  of  Kansas  in  their  present  subjugation  throughout  their  Ter 
ritorial  existence,  but  also  to  protract  this  subjugation  into  their  exist 
ence  as  a  State,  while  you  legalize  and  perpetuate  the  very  force  by 
which  Slavery  is  already  planted  there.  *  *  * 

Thus,  on  every  ground  of  precedent,  whether  as  regards  population 
or  forms  of  proceeding, — also,  on  the  vital  principle  of  American  Insti 
tutions, — and,  lastly,  on  the  supreme  law  of  self-defence,  do  I  now 
invoke  the  power  of  Congress  to  admit  Kansas  at  once  and  without 
hesitation  into  the  Union.  "  New  States  may  be  admitted  by  the  Con 
gress  into  this  Union"  :  such  are  the  words  of  the  Constitution.  If  you 


294  REACHING    THE   GOAL. 

hesitate  for  want  of  precedent,  then  do  I  appeal  to  the  great  principle 
of  American  Institutions.  If,  forgetting  the  origin  of  the  Republic,  you 
turn  away  from  this  principle,  then,  in  the  name  of  human  nature, 
trampled  down  and  oppressed,  but  aroused  to  just  self-defence,  do  I" 
plead  for  the  exercise  of  this  power.  Do  not  hearken,  I  pray  you,  to 
the  propositions  of  Tyranny  and  Folly ;  do  not  be  ensnared  by  that 
other  proposition  of  the  Senator  from  Illinois  [Mr.  Douglas],  where  is 
the  horrid  root  of  Injustice  and  Civil  War;  but  apply  gladly,  and  at 
once,  the  True  Remedy,  where  are  Justice  and  Peace. 


LXXXIV. 

Mr.  President,  an  immense  space  has  been  traversed,  and  I  stand 
now  at  the  goal.  The  argument  in  its  various  parts  is  here  closed. 
The  Crime  against  Kansas  has  been  displayed  in  its  origin  and  extent, 
beginning  with  the  overthrow  of  the  Prohibition  of  Slavery,  next  crop 
ping  out  in  conspiracy  on  the  borders  of  Missouri,  then  hardening  into 
continuity  of  outrage  through  organized  invasion  and  miscellaneous  as 
saults  where  all  security  was  destroyed,  and  ending  at  last  in  the  per 
fect  subjugation  of  a  generous  people  to  an  unprecedented  Usurpation. 
Turning  aghast  from  the  Crime,  which,  like  murder,  confesses  itself 
"  with  most  miraculous  organ,"  we  have  looked  with  mingled  shame 
and  indignation  upon  the  four  Apologies,  whether  of  Tyranny,  Imbecil 
ity,  Absurdity,  or  Infamy,  in  which  it  is  wrapped,  marking  especially 
false  testimony,  congenial  with  the  original  Crime,  against  the  Emigrant 
Aid  Company.  Then  were  noted,  in  succession,  the  four  Remedies, 
whether  of  Tyranny,  Folly,  Injustice,  and  Civil  War,  or  of  Justice  and 
Peace,  which  last  bids  Kansas,  in  conformity  with  past  precedents  and 
under  exigencies  of  the  hour,  for  redemption  from  Usurpation,  to  take 
her  place  as  a  State  of  the  Union  ;  and  this  is  the  True  Remedy.  If 
in  this  argument  I  have  not  unworthily  vindicated  Truth,  then  have  I 
spoken  according  to  my  desires, — if  imperfectly,  then  only  according  to 
my  powers.  But  there  are  other  things,  not  belonging  to  the  argu 
ment,  which  still  press  for  utterance. 

Sir,  the  people  of  Kansas,  bone  of  your  bone  and  flesh  of  your  flesh, 
with  the  education  of  freemen  and  the  rights  of  American  citizens,  now 
stand  at  your  door.  Will  you  send  them  away,  or  bid  them  enter  ? 
Will  you  push  them  back  to  renew  their  struggle  with  a  deadly  foe,  or 
will  you  preserve  them  in  security  and  peace?  Will  you  cast  them 


THE   AMERICAN   PRESIDENT   GUILTY.  295 

again  into  the  den  of  Tyranny,  or  will  you  help  their  despairing  efforts 
to  escape  ?  These  questions  I  put  with  no  common  solicitude,  for  I 
feel  that  on  their  just  determination  depend  all  the  most  precious  in 
terests  of  the  Republic  ;  and  I  perceive  too  clearly  the  prejudices  in 
the  way,  and  the  accumulating  bitterness  against  this  distant  people, 
now  claiming  a  simple  birthright,  while  I  am  bowed  with  mortification, 
as  I  recognize  the  President  of  the  United  States,  who  should  have 
been  a  staff  to  the  weak  and  a  shield  to  the  innocent,  at  the  head  of  this 
strange  oppression. 


LXXXV. 

At  every  stage  the  similitude  between  the  wrongs  of  Kansas  and 
those  other  wrongs  against  which  our  fathers  rose  becomes  more  appa 
rent.  Read  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  there  is  hardly  an 
accusation  against  the  British  Monarch  which  may  not  now  be  hurled 
with  increased  force  against  the  American  President.  The  parallel  has 
fearful  particularity.  Our  fathers  complained,  that  the  King  had  "  sent 
hither  swarms  of  officers  to  harass  our  people  and  eat  out  their  sub 
stance," — that  he  had  "combined  with  others  to  subject  us  to  a  juris 
diction  foreign  to  our  Constitution,  giving  his  assent  to  their  acts  of  pre 
tended  legislation" — that  he  had  "abdicated  government  here,  by  de 
claring  us  out  of  his  protection,  and  waging  war  against  us" — that  he 
had  "excited  domestic  insurrections  amongst  us,  and  endeavored  to 
bring  on  the  inhabitants  of  our  frontiers  the  merciless  savages" — that 
"  our  repeated  petitions  have  been  answered  only  by  repeated  injury." 
And  this  arraignment  was  aptly  followed  by  the  damning  words,  that 
"a  Prince  whose  character  is  thus  marked  by  every  act  which  may  de 
fine  a  tyrant  is  unfit  to  be  the  ruler  of  a  free  people."  And  surely  the 
President  who  does  all  these  things  cannot  be  less  unfit  than  a  Prince. 
At  every  stage  the  responsibility  is  brought  directly  to  him.  His  offence 
is  of  commission  and  omission.  He  has  done  that  which  he  ought 
not  to  have  done,  and  has  left  undone  that  which  he  ought  to  have  done. 
By  his  activity,  the  Prohibition  of  Slavery  was  overturned.  By  his  fail 
ure  to  act,  the  honest  emigrants  in  Kansas  are  left  a  prey  to  wrong  of 
all  kinds.  His  activity  and  inactivity  are  alike  fatal.  And  now  he 
stands  forth  the  most  conspicuous  enemy  of  that  unhappy  Territory. 

As  the  tyranny  of  the  British  King  is  all  renewed  in  the  President,  so 
are  renewed  on  this  floor  the  old  indignities  which  embittered  and  fo- 


296  INTERVAL   OF   ILLNESS   AND    REPOSE. 

mented  the  troubles  of  our  fathers.  The  early  petition  of  the  American 
Congress  to  Parliament,  long  before  any  suggestion  of  Independence, 
was  opposed — like  the  petitions  of  Kansas — because  that  body  "  was 
assembled  without  any  requisition  on  the  part  of  the  Supreme  Power." 
Another  petition  from  New  York,  presented  by  Edmund  Burke,  was 
flatly  rejected,  as  claiming  rights  derogatory  to  Parliament.  And  still 
another  petition  from  Massachusetts  Bay  was  dismissed  as  "vexatious 
and  scandalous,"  while  the  patriot  philosopher  who  bore  it  was  exposed 
to  peculiar  contumely.  Throughout  the  debates  our  fathers  were  made 
the  butt  of  sorry  jest  and  supercilious  assumption.  And  now  these 
scenes,  with  these  precise  objections,  are  renewed  in  the  American 
Senate.  *  *  * 


SECTION  SIXTH. 

The  Interval  of  Illness  and  Repose. 

I. 

WHEN  the  assault  was  made  on  Mr.  SUMNER,  he  was 
not  only  in  perfect  health,  but  in  the  enjoyment  of  a 
degree  of  physical  strength  and  corresponding  intellect 
ual  vigor,  that  few  men  ever  possess.  It  was  the  testi 
mony  of  the  surgeons  and  by-stanclers  who  saw  his  body 
entirely  undres'sed  for  an  examination,  to  trace  the  extent 
of  his  injury,  that  they  had  never  seen  a  human  form 
more  perfectly  developed,  for  beauty,  symmetry,  and 
power.  It  was  the  belief  of  the  many  eminent  surgeons 
and  distinguished  men  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic, 
who,  during  the  next  three  or  four  years,  treated  his 
case  professionally,  that  the  only  hope  for  his  ultimate 
recovery  lay  in  the  exceptional  and  almost  unparalleled 
vigor  and  vitality  of  his  physical  system. 


THE   SEA-SIDE   AND   THE   MOUNTAINS.  2Q/ 

After  the  assault,  from  which  he  supposed  he  would 
recover  in  a  few  days,  it  soon  became  evident  that  the 
pressure  upon  the  brain,  connected  with  weakness  in  the 
spinal  column,  would  render  any  early  recovery  an  im 
possibility.  He  became  the  guest  of  FRANCIS  P.  BLAIR, 
at  Silver  Spring" — within  an  easy  carriage  ride  of 
Washington.  In  the  fore  part  of  July,  he  found  himself 
well  enough  to  go  on  to  Philadelphia,  where  he  received 
the  kindest  attention  from  the  family  of  Mr.  JAMES  T. 
FURNESS.  At  their  invitation,  he  went  with  them  to  Cape 
May.  Afterwards,  under  advice  of  Dr.  R.  N.  JACKSON, 
he  was  removed  to  Cresson,  among  the  highlands  of 
Pennsylvania.  But  no  signs  of  immediate  restoration 
appeared,  and  in  the  beginning  of  October  he  once 
more  reached  his  home  in  Boston.  This  return  he  had 
postponed,  at  the  earnest  persuasion  of  his  medical  ad 
viser,  who  foresaw  that  his  entry  to  Boston  would  be 
attended  with  the  greatest  excitement,  for  the  feeling 
which  inflamed  the  people  of  Massachusetts,  of  indigna 
tion  on  the  one  side,  and  of  the  tenderest  affection  on 
the  other,  could  not  be  repressed. 

II. 

The  welcome  which  Massachusetts  extended  to  her 
Senator  on  his  return,  was  an  imposing  demonstration  of 
honor  and  love.  Boston  was  decorated  as  she  had  never 
been  for  the  gayest  festival.  Thousands  had  flocked  from 
every  district  of  the  State,  and  every  city  in  New  Eng 
land  ;  and  the  occasion  was  marked  by  every  token  of 
respect,  and  made  touching  by  every  proof  of  sympathy 
and  affection.  With  great  difficulty,  and  in  a  feeble  voice, 
he  thus  returned  his  thanks  from  the  platform  which  had 


298  WELCOME   OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

been  erected  in  front  of  the  Capitol,  and  up  whose  steps 
he  was  assisted  by  the  most  venerable  men  of  Boston  :— 

It  is  a  pleasure  to  be  once  more  among  the  scenes  of  home  ;  to  look 
upon  familiar  objects, — the  State  House,  the  Common,  and  well-known 
Streets.  It  is  more  pleasant  still  to  behold  the  countenances  of  friends. 
And  all  this  pleasure,  sir,  is  enhanced  by  the  welcome  which  you  now 
give  me,  in  behalf  of  the  Commonwealth  which  for  five  years  I  have 
served,  honestly,  earnestly,  and  constantly,  in  an  important  field  of 
duty,  to  which  I  was  introduced  by  an  unsought  suffrage. 

Sir,  I  thank  you  for  this  welcome  ;  I  thank,  also,  the  distinguished 
gentlemen  who  have  honored  this  occasion  by  their  presence.  I  thank, 
too,  these  swelling  multitudes  who  contribute  to  me  the  strength  and 
succor  of  their  presence  ;  and  my  soul  overflows  especially  to  the  young 
men  of  Boston,  out  of  whose  hearts,  as  from  an  exuberant  fountain, 
this  broad-spreading  hospitality  took  its  rise. 

My  earnest  desire,  often  expressed,  has  been,  that  I  might  be  allowed 
to  return  home  quietly,  without  show  or  demonstration  of  any  kind. 
And  this  longing  was  enforced  by  my  physical  condition,  which,  though 
vastly  improved  at  this  time,  and  advancing  surely  towards  complete 
health,  is  still  exposed  to  the  peril  of  relapse,  or  at  least  to  the  arrest  of 
those  kindly  processes  of  Nature  essential  to  the  restoration  of  a  shat 
tered  system.  But  the  spontaneous  kindness  of  this  reception  makes 
me  forget  my  weakness,  makes  me  forget  my  desire  for  repose. 

I  thank  you,  sir,  for  the  suggestion  of  seclusion,  and  the  security 
which  that  suggestion  promises  to  afford. 

Something  more,  sir,  I  would  say,  but  I  am  admonished  that  voice 
and  strength  will  not  permit.  With  your  permission,  therefore,  I  will 
hand  the  reporters  what  I  should  be  glad  to  say,  that  it  may  be  printed. 

[The  remainder  of  the  speech  is  printed  from  Mr.  Simmer's  manu 
script.] 

III. 

More  than  five  months  have  passed  since  I  was  disabled  from  the 
performance  of  my  public  duties.  During  this  weary  period  1  have 
been  constrained  to  repeat  daily  the  lesson  of  renunciation, — confined 
at  first  to  my  bed,  and  then  only  slowly  regaining  the  power  even  to 
walk.  But,  beyond  the  constant,  irrepressible  grief  which  must  well  up 
in  the  breast  of  every  patriot,  as  he  discerns  the  present  condition  of 


HIS    RECEPTION    SPEECH.  299 

his  country,  my  chief  sorrow  has  been  caused  by  the  necessity,  to  which 
I  was  doomed,  of  renouncing  all  part  in  the  contest  for  human  rights, 
which,  beginning  in  Congress,  has  since  enveloped  the  whole  land. 

The  Grecian  Chief,  grievously  ill  of  a  wound  from  the  stealthy  bite  of 
a  snake,  and  left  behind  while  his  companions  sailed  to  the  siege  of 
Troy,  did  not  repine  more  at  his  enforced  seclusion.  From  day  to  day, 
and  week  to  week,  I  vainly  sought  that  health  which  we  value  most 
when  lost,  and  which  perpetually  eluded  my  pursuit.  For  health  I 
strove,  for  health  I  prayed.  With  uncertain  steps  I  sought  it  at  the  sea 
shore,  and  I  sought  it  on  the  mountain-top. 

"  Two  voices  are  there  :  one  is  of  the  sea, 
One  of  the  mountains ;  each  a  mighty  voice  : 
In  both  from  age  to  age  thou  didst  rejoice, 
They  were  thy  chosen  music,  Liberty  ! ' ' 

I  listened  to  the  admonitions  of  medical  skill,  and  I  courted  all  the 
bracing  influences  of  Nature,  while  time  passed  without  the  accustomed 
healing  on  its  wings.  I  had  confidently  hoped  to  be  restored  so  as  to 
take  my  seat  in  the  Senate,  and  to  be  heard  there  again,  long  before 
the  session  closed.  But  Congress  adjourned,  leaving  me  still  an  invalid. 
My  next  hope  was,  that  I  might  be  permitted  to  appear  before  the 
people  during  the  present  canvass,  and  with  heart  and  voice  plead 
the  great  cause  now  in  issue.  Even  now,  though  happily  lifted  from 
long  prostration,  and  beginning  to  assume  many  of  the  conditions  of 
health,  I  am  constrained  to  confess  that  I  am  an  invalid, —  cheered, 
however,  by  the  assurance  that  I  shall  soon  be  permitted,  with  unim 
paired  vigor,  to  resume  all  the  responsibilities  of  my  position. 

Too  much  have  I  said  about  myself;  but  you  will  pardon  it  to  the 
occasion,  which,  being  personal  in  character,  invites  these  personal  con 
fessions.  With  more  pleasure  I  turn  to  other  things. 

I  should  feel  that  I  failed  in  one  of  those  duties  which  the  heart 
prompts  and  the  judgment  confirms,  if  I  allowed  this  first  opportunity 
to  pass  without  sincerest  acknowledgment  to  my  able,  generous,  and 
faithful  colleague,  Mr.  Wilson.  Together  we  labored  in  mutual  trust, 
honorably  leaning  upon  each  other.  By  my  disability  he  was  left  sole 
representative  of  Massachusetts  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate,  throughout 
months  of  heated  contest,  involving  her  good  name  and  most  cherished 
sentiments.  All  who  watched  the  currents  of  debate,  even  as  imper 
fectly  as  I  did  in  my  retirement,  know  with  what  readiness,  courage  and 
power  he  acted, — showing  himself,  by  extraordinary  energies,  equal 


3OO  HIS  PORTRAIT   OF   HIS   MOTHER-STATE. 

to  the  extraordinary  occasion.  But  it  is  my  especial  happiness  to  re 
cognize  his  unfailing  sympathies'  for  myself,  and  his  manly  assumption 
of  all  the  responsibilities  of  the  hour. 

IV. 

I  am  not  here  to  indulge  in  eulogy,  nor  to  open  any  merit-roll  of  service  ; 
but  the  same  feeling  which  prompts  these  acknowledgments  to  my  col 
league,  embraces  also  the  Commonwealth  from  whom  we  have  received 
our  trust.  To  Massachusetts,  mother  of  us  all, — great  in  resources, 
great  in  children, — I  now  pledge  anew  my  devotion.  Never  before  did 
she  inspire  equal  pride  and  affection  ;  for  never  before  was  she  so  com 
pletely  possessed  by  those  sentiments  which,  when  manifest  in  Com 
monwealth  or  citizen,  invest  the  character  with  its  highest  charm,  so 
that  what  is  sown  a  natural  body  is  raised  a  spiritual  body.  My  filial 
love  does  not  claim  too  much,  when  it  exhibits  her  as  approaching  the 
pattern  of  a  Christian  Commonwealth,  which,  according  to  the  great 
English  Republican,  John  Milton,  <;  ought  to  be  but  as  one  huge  Chris 
tian  personage,  one  mighty  growth  and  stature  of  an  honest  man,  as 
big  and  compact  in  virtue  as  in  body."  Not  through  any  worldly 
triumphs,  not  through  the  vaults  of  State  street,  the  spindles  of  Lowell, 
or  even  the  learned  endowments  of  Cambridge,  is  Massachusetts  thus, — 
but  because,  seeking  to  extend  everywhere  within  the  sphere  of  her  in 
fluence  the  benign  civilization  which  she  cultivates  at  home,  she  stands 
forth  the  faithful,  unseduced  supporter  of  Human  Nature.  Wealth  has 
its  splendor,  and  the  intellect  has  its  glory ;  but  there  is  a  grandeur  in 
such  service  which  above  all  that,  these  can  supply.  For  this  she  has 
already  the  regard  of  good  men,  and  will  have  the  immortal  life  of  his 
tory.  For  this  she  has  also  the  reproach  and  contumely  always  through 
out  the  ages  poured  upon  those  who  have  striven  for  justice  on  earth. 
Not  now  for  the  first  time  in  human  struggle,  has  Truth,  when  most  dis 
honored,  seemed  most  radiant,  gathering  glory  even  out  of  obloquy. 
When  Sir  Harry  Vane,  courageous  champion  of  the  English  Common 
wealth,  was  dragged  on  a  hurdle  up  the  Tower  Hill  to  suffer  death  by 
the  axe,  one  of  the  multitude  cried  out  to  him,  "  That  is  the  most  glo 
rious  seat  you  ever  sat  on  ! "  And  again,  when  Russell  was  exposed 
in  the  streets,  on  his  way  to  a  similar  scaffold,  the  people,  according  to 
the  simple  narrative  of  his  biographer,  imagined  they  saw  Liberty  and 
Virtue  sitting  by  his  side.  Massachusetts  is  not  without  encouragement 
in  her  own  history.  She  has  seen  her  ports  closed  by  arbitrary  power, — 


SOME   OF    HER   FALSE    CHILDREN.  301 

she  has  seen  her  name  made  a  byword  of  reproach, — she  has  seen  her 
cherished  leaders,  Hancock  and  Adams,  excepted  from  all  pardon  by 
the  Crown  ;  but  then,  when  most  dishonored,  did  Massachusetts  deserve 
most,  for  then  she  was  doing  most  for  the  cause  of  all.  And  now,  when 
Massachusetts  is  engaged  in  a  greater  cause  than  that  of  our  fathers, 
how  serenely  can  she  turn  from  the  scoff  and  jeer  of  heartless  men  ! 
Her  only  disgrace  will  be  in  disloyalty  to  truth  which  is  to  make  her  free. 
Worse  to  bear — oh,  far  worse  ! — than  the  evil  speaking  of  others,  is 
the  conduct  of  some  of  her  own  children.  It  is  hard  to  see  the  scholar 
ship  which  has  been  drawn  from  her  cisterns,  and  the  riches  accumu 
lated  under  her  hospitable  shelter,  now  employed  to  weaken  and  dis 
credit  that  cause  which  is  above  riches  or  scholarship.  It  is  hard, 
while  fellow-citizens  in  Kansas  plead  for  deliverance  from  a  cruel 
Usurpation,  and  while  the  whole  country,  including  her  own  soil,  is 
trodden  down  by  a  domineering  and  brutal  Despotism,  to  behold  sons' 
of  Massachusetts  in  sympathy,  open  or  disguised,  with  the  vulgar 
enemy,  quickening  everywhere  the  lash  of  the  taskmaster,  and  helping 
forward  the  Satanic  carnival,  when  Slavery  shall  be  fastened  not  only 
upon  prostrate  Kansas,  but  upon  all  the  Territories  of  the  Republic, — 
when  Cuba  shall  be  torn  from  a  friendly  power  by  dishonest  force, — 
and  when  the  slave-trade  itself,  with  all  its  crime,  its  woe,  and  its 
shame,  shall  be  opened  anew  under  the  American  flag.  Alas,  that 
any  child  of  Massachusetts,  in  wickedness  of  heart,  or  in  weakness  of 
principle,  or  under  the  delusion  of  partisan  prejudice,  should  join  in 
these  things  !  With  such,  I  have  no  word  of  controversy  at  this 
hour.  But,  leaving  them  now,  in  my  weakness,  I  trust  not  to  seem 
too  severe,  if  I  covet  for  the  occasion  something  of  the  divine  power 

"  To  bend  the  silver  bow  with  tender  skill, 
While,  void  of  pain,  the  silent  arrows  kill." 


V. 

Gladly  from  these  do  I  turn  to  another  character,  yet  happily  spared 
to  Massachusetts,  whose  heart  beats  strong  with  the  best  blood  of  the 
Revolution,  and  with  the  best  sentiments  by  which  that  blood  was 
enriched.  The  only  child  of  one  of  the  authors  of  American  Liberty, 
for  many  years  the  able  and  courageous  Representative  of  Boston  on 
the  floor  of  Congress,  where  his  speeches  were  the  masterpieces  of  the 
time,  distinguished  throughout  a  long' career  by  the  grateful  trust  of  his 


302  TRIBUTE  TO  JOSIAH   QUINCY. 

fellow-citizens,  happy  in  all  the  possessions  of  a  well-spent  life,  and 
surrounded  by  "  honor,  love,  obedience,  troops  of  friends,"  with  an 
old  age  which  is  second  youth,  JOSIAH  QUINCV,  still  erect  under  the 
burden  of  eighty-four  winters,  puts  himself  at  the  head  of  our  great 
battle, — and  never  before,  in  the  ardor  of  youth,  or  the  maturity  of 
manhood,  did  he  show  himself  so  grandly  conspicuous,  and  add  so 
much  to  the  heroic  wealth  of  our  history.  His  undaunted  soul,  lifted 
already  to  glimpses  of  another  life,  may  shame  the  feebler  spirits  of  a 
later  generation.  There  is  one  other  personage,  at  a  distant  period, 
who,  with  precisely  the  same  burden  of  winters,  asserted  the  same 
supremacy  of  powers.  It  is  the  celebrated  Dandolo,  Doge  of  Venice, 
at  the  age  of  eighty-four,  of  whom  the  historian  Gibbon  has  said,  in 
words  strictly  applicable  to  our  own  Quincy  :  "  He  shone,  in  the  last 
period  of  human  life,  as  one  of  the  most  illustrious  characters  of  the 
times  :  under  the  weight  of  years  he  retained  a  sound  understanding 
and  a  manly  courage,  the  spirit  of  an  hero,  and  the  wisdom  of  a 
patriot."  This  old  man  carried  the  Venetian  Republic  over  to  the 
Crusaders,  and  exposed  his  person  freely  to  all  the  perils  of  Avar,  so 
that  the  historian  describes  him,  in  words  again  applicable  to  our  day, 
saying  :  "  In  the  midst  of  the  conflict,  the  Doge,  a  venerable  and  con 
spicuous  form,  stood  aloft,  on  the  prow  of  his  galley,"  while  "  the 
great  standard  of  St.  Mark  was  displayed  before  him."  Before  the 
form  of  our  venerable  head  is  displayed  the  standard  of  a  greater 
Republic  than  Venice,  thrilling  with  its  sight  greater  multitudes  than 
ever  gazed  on  the  sta.ndard  of  St.  Mark,  while  a  sublimer  cause  is  ours 
than  the  cause  of  the  Crusaders  ;  for  our  task  is  not  to  ransom  an 
empty  sepulchre,  but  to  rescue  the  Saviour  himself,  in  the  bodies  of  his 
innumerable  children, — not  to  dislodge  the  Infidel  from  a  distant 
foreign  soil,  but  to  displace  him  from  the  very  Jerusalem  of  our 
liberties. 

May  it  please  your  Excellency,  I  forbear  to  proceed  further.  With 
thanks  for  this  welcome,  accept  also  my  new  vows  of  duty.  In  all 
simplicity,  let  me  say  that  I  seek  nothing  but  the  triumph  of  Truth. 
To  this  I  offer  my  best  efforts,  careless  of  office  or  honor.  Show  me 
that  I  am  wrong,  and  I  stop  at  once ;  but  in  the  complete  conviction 
of  right  I  shall  persevere  against  all  temptations,  against  all  odds, 
against  all  perils,  against  all  threats — knowing  well,  that,  whatever  may 
be  my  fate,  the  Right  will  surely  prevail.  Territorial  place  is  deter 
mined  by  celestial  observation.  Only  by  watching  the  stars  can  the 
manner  safely  pursue  his  course ;  and  it  is  only  by  obeying  those  lofty 


REELECTION   TO   THE   SENATE.  303 

principles,  which  are  above  men  and  human  passion,  that  we  can  make 
our  way  safely  through  the  duties  of  life.  In  such  obedience  I  hope 
to  live,  while,  as  a  servant  of  Massachusetts,  I  avoid  no  labor,-  shrink 
from  no  exposure,  and  complain  of  no  hardship. 

VI. 

Once  more  in  his  native  city,  surrounded  with  every 
comfort,  and  watched  over  with  the  greatest  vigilance 
by  Dr.  MARSHALL  S.  PERRY,  his  attending  physician, 
with  the  consultation  of  the  venerable  Dr.  JAMES  JACK 
SON,  and  all  the  suggestions  the  most  learned  medical 
men  of  Boston  could  give,  he  remained  several  months, 
as  quietly  as  possible,  in  his  own  house,  most  of  the 
time  lying  on  the  sofa  or  bed. 

Meantime,  in  this  state  of  prostration,  with  no  •imme 
diate  prospect  of  recovery,  he  had  been  reflected  for  the 
second  term  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  by  un 
animity  almost  without  a  parallel.  The  vote  of  the 
Senate  was  given  to  him  without  a  dissenting  voice ; 
and  in  the  Assembly,  constituted  of  several  hundred 
members,  there  were  only  a  few  scattering  votes. 

At  last  he  felt  so  much  restored  that,  against  the  per 
suasion  of  many  friends,  he  started  for  Washington, 
reaching  the  Capital  just  before  the  close  of  the  session, 
but  in  time  to  determine  by  his  vote  the  fate  of  the 
Tariff  of  1857.  After  being  sworn  in  for  his  second 
term,  on  the  4th  of  March,  he  yielded  to  the  persuasion 
of  his  friends,  who  were  unanimous  in  the  opinion  that 
nothing  but  rest  and  recreation  could  restore  him  ;  and 
on  the  7th  of  March  he  sailed  for  Havre. 

VII. 

He  was  no  stranger  in  Europe.  Throughout  the 
British  Islands,  and  on  the  Continent,  all  the  great  men 


304  HIS   SOJOURN  IN   EUROPE. 

in  science,  in  literature,  in  jurisprudence,  with  the  friends 
of  humanity,  were  prepared  to  give  him  the  most  gen 
erous  greeting.  Mr.  GEORGE  COMBE,  the  distinguished 
physiologist,  who  interested  himself  most  earnestly  in  his 
case,  after  consultation  with  SIR  JAMES  CLARK,  Physician 
to  the  Queen,  advised  him  strongly  against  any  early  re 
turn  to  public  life.  But  so  deep  was  his  anxiety  about 
certain  measures  before  Congress,  he  could  not  be  de 
terred  from  returning;  and  in  December,  1857,  he  was 
once  more  in  his  seat.  But  he  soon  found  that  applica 
tion  to  public  affairs  brought  on  a  recurrence  of  his  un 
favorable  symptoms,  and  a  series  of  relapses  induced  him 
at  last  to  make  one  more,  and,  if  necessary,  a  protracted 
effort  for  recovery.  Consequently,  on  the  226.  of  May, 
the  following  year, — 1858, — he  once  more  embarked  for 
Europe. 

At  Paris  he  placed  himself  under  the  care  of  Dr. 
BROWN-SEQUARD,  the  illustrious  physiologist  and  spe 
cialist,  who  made  a  more  thorough  and  analytical  diag 
nosis  of  his  case  than  had  ever  been  made ;  and  he  un 
reservedly  expressed  the  opinion  that  "  the  blows  on  the 
head  had  taken  effect  by  contre-coups  in  the  spine,  pro 
ducing  disturbance  in  the  spinal  cord."  "  What  then 
shall  be  the  remedy  ?  "  inquired  Mr.  Sumner.  "  Fire," 
answered  Dr.  BROWN-SEQUARD.  "  When  can  you  ap 
ply  it  ?  "  "  To-morrow,  if  you  please."  "  Why  not  this 
afternoon  ?  "  That  afternoon  it  was  done  by  the  moxa, 
which  was  followed  by  seven  other  applications,  always 
without  chloroform,  since  Mr.  SUMNER  remarked  that  he 
wished  to  comprehend  the  whole  process ;  and  as  for  the 
pain,  he  cared  nothing  for  it. 

This  treatment  had  taken  place  in  the  month  of  June, 
and  the  result  justified  the  sagacity  and  learning  of  Mr. 


DR.  BROWN-SEQUARD.  305 

SUMNER'S  very  great  medical  adviser.  Probably  within 
the  whole  range  of  modern  chemistry,  its  subtle  elements 
of  power  have  in  no  instance  been  so  exhaustively  in 
voked  for  the  restoration  of  life  ;  for,  although  a  perfect 
cure  seemed  to  be  an  impossibility,  yet  beyond  all  doubt 
it  is  owing  to  the  matchless  learning,  and  more  than 
friendly  assiduity,  of  Dr.  BROWN-SEQUARD,  that  Mr.  Sum- 
ner's  valuable  life  was  protracted  with  almost  unabated 
vigor  during  the  long  period  of  sixteen  years. 

To  show  the  elasticity  of  Mr.  Sumner's  mind,  and 
the  strange  power  of  recuperation  his  physical  system 
possessed,  he  spent  most  of  the  time  during  the  painful 
treatment  he  was  subjected  to,  in  the  careful  study  of 
engravings  ;  and  thus  with  the  assistance  of  the  finest 
artists  in  Paris,  he  matured  his  connoisseurship  in  that 
exquisitely  beautiful  department  of  Art. 

VIII. 

After  journeying  leisurely  through  Switzerland,  Ger 
many,  and  the  northern  part  of  Italy,  taking  Berlin,  Vienna, 
Munich,  Venice,  and  Trieste  en  route,  he  reached  Paris, 
where  he  made  preparations  for  his  immediate  return  to 
America.  But  in  a  medical  conference  held  by  Dr. 
BROWN-SEQUARD,  Dr.  GEORGE  HAYWARD,  and  the  il 
lustrious  French  practitioner,  Dr.  TROUSSEAU,  he  was 
informed  that  death  would  be  the  inevitable  result  of  so 
rash  an  undertaking.  Escaping,  therefore,  from  all  the 
excitements  of  Paris,  which  meant  the  excitements  of 
Europe,  he  fled  to  Montpelier,  in  the  south  of  France, 
where  he  led  a  life  of  absolute  retirement.  Every  day 
he  was  cupped  on  the  spine,  and  three-quarters  of  his 
time  was  spent  on  his  bed  or  sofa,  sleeping  whenever 


20 


306  RETURN  TO  THE  SENATE. 

he  could,  but  finding  his  chief  recreation  in  reading ; 
although  he  would  frequently  attend  the  public  lectures 
at  the  College,  on  History  and  Literature. 

IX. 

No  portion  of  the  earth  approaches  nearer  to  the 
ideal  of  the  invalid's  paradise,  than  the  south  of  France. 
Bordering  on  the  Mediterranean, 

"  That  tideless  sea, 
Which  ceaseless  rolls  eternally ;  " 

whose  waters  vary  in  temperature  only  one  or  two 
degrees  in  the  year,  and  whose  climate  combines  all  the 
soft  and  genial  influences  so  completely  embraced  in  the 
term  mezzo  giorno,  and  far  away  from  the  fire-life 
Americans  lead,  he  was  now  on  the  road  to  substantial 
recovery.  After  one  more  rapid  dash  through  Italy,  he 
reported  himself  in  Paris  to  Dr.  BROWN-SEQUARD,  who 
now  pronounced  him  well.  For  a  month  he  took  the  sea- 
baths  at  Havre,  and  at  the  opening  of  Congress  in 
December,  he  was  once  more  in  his  Senatorial  seat. 


SECTION  SEVENTH. 

Return  to  the  Senate. 
I. 

CHARLES  SUMNER  now  put  on  again  the  armor  in 
which  he  had  fallen  paralyzed  at  his  post  of  duty,  and 
once  more  advanced  to  the  front  of  the  battle.  That 


AGAIN    IN  THE    FRONT  OF    BATTLE.  30/ 

cause  had  been  gaining  ground  faster,  perhaps,  because 
of  his  absence, — so  eloquent  was  that  always  VACANT 
CHAIR — than  if  he  had  not  been  taken  from  the  scene. 
Other  champions  just  as  true,  if  not  so  mighty,  had 
sprung  to  the  van  of  conflict.  Now  the  acknowledged 
leader  was  once  more  in  the  field,  and  his  clarion  voice 
rang  out  loud  and  clear  along  the  whole  line  of  battle. 

Those  who  gazed  on  his  noble  form  once  more,  could 
not  but  be  reminded  of  the  fate  of  BROOKS,  the  assassin, 
nor  fail  to  mark  the  absence  of  Butler,  the  occasion  of 
the  crime.  Time  had  spared  neither  of  them.  They 
had  gone  to  their  graves,  leaving  names  to  rot  their 
infamous  way  to  oblivion. 

II. 

His  speech  on  THE  BARBARISM  OF  SLAVERY — from  which 
we  shall  soon  quote  largely, — roused  the  same  infernal 
spirit  which  Mr.  SUMNER  had  so  forcibly  depicted,  and 
a  party  of  ruffians  made  several  attempts  four  days  after 
wards,  to  enter  his  lodgings,  with  the  purpose,  as  subse 
quently  avowed,  of  taking  his  life.  Senator  Wilson,  who 
had  gone  to  the  street  door  on  the  ringing  of  the  bell,  pre 
vented  their  entrance  by  telling  them  Mr.  SUMNER  had  not 
yet  returned,  and  instantly  took  effectual  means  for  his  pro 
tection.  A  party  of  brave  Kansas  men,  without  Mr.  SUM- 
NER'S  knowledge,  acted  as  a  body-guard,  keeping  within 
covering  distance  of  him  wherever  he  went ;  for  he  still 
walked  about  unarmed,  and  with  no  special  precaution 
against  violence.  It  was  his  desire  not  to  give  publicity 
to  the  intentions  of  the  assassins  ;  but  they  became 
known,  and  from  various  parts  of  the  country,  men  either 
started  for  Washington,  or  volunteered  their  services,  at 


308  SPEECH   ON  THE   BARBARISM   OF    SLAVERY. 

whatever  hazard,  to  protect  the  person  of  the  Senator. 
Mr.  BURLINGAME,  Mr.  JOHN  SHERMAN,  or  Mr.  WILSON, 
slept  in  the  room  opening  into  his  chamber.  The  Mayor 
of  Washington,  who  had  learned  the  purposes  of  the 
assassins,  invited  Mr.  SUMNER  to  make  affidavits  of  the 
facts,  or  lodge  a  complaint.  The  latter  he  declined  to 
do,  on  the  ground  that,  from  the  past,  neither  he  nor  his 
friends  could  rely  upon  Washington  magistrates.  But 
the  Mayor  finally  brought  the  ringleader,  who  was  a  Vir 
ginian,  and  a  well-known  office-holder  under  the  admin 
istration,  to  Mr.  SUMNER'S  room  to  apologize. 

The  correspondents  of  the  Chicago  Press  and  Tribune, 
wrote,  June  5th : 

The  speech  of  Charles  Sumner  yesterday,  was  probably  the  most 
masterly  and  exhaustive  argument  against  human  bondage,  that  has 
ever  been  made  in  this,  or  any  other  country,  since  man  first  com 
menced  to  oppress  his  fellow-man.  He  took  the  floor  at  ten  minutes 
past  twelve,  and  spoke  until  a  little  after  four.  The  tone  of  the  speech 
was  not  vindictive,  and  yet  there  was  a  terrible  severity  running  through 
it,  that  literally  awed  the  Southern  Senators.  As  an  effort,  it  will  live 
in  history  long  after  the  ephemeral  contest  of  this  age  shall  have  passed 
away.  Indeed,  while  listening  to  it,  I  could  not  but  feel, — and  the 
same  feeling  was  1  know  experienced  by  others — that  the  eloquent  and 
brave  orator  was  speaking  rather  to  future  generations,  and  to  the 
impartial  audience  of  the  civilized  world,  than  to  the  men  of  to-day, 
with  a  view  of  effecting  any  result  upon  the  elements  by  which  he  was 
immediately  surrounded. 

The  correspondent  "of  the  New  York  Evening  Post: 

Mr.  Sumner's  speech  was  a  tremendous  attack  upon  Slavery,  and  yet 
was  utterly  devoid  of  personalities.  He  attacked  the  Institution,  and 
not  individuals  ;  but  his  language  was  very  severe.  There  was  no  let-up 
in  the  severity  from  beginning  to  end. 

The  correspondent  of  the  Boston  Traveller  said  : 

So  far  as  personal  violence  was  to  be  apprehended,  we  think  he  was 


RESPONSES  TO   HIS   GREAT  SPEECH.  309 

as  unconcerned  as  a  man  could  be.  Anxiety  on  that  account  might 
have  been  felt  by  his  friends,  but  not  by  him.  He  seemed  to  be  all- 
forgetful  of  himself,  and  to  have  his  mind  dwelling  on  the  cause  to 
which  he  was  devoted,  the  race  for  which  he  was  to  plead,  and  on  the 
responsibility  under  which  he  stood  to  his  country,  and  to  generations 
to  come.  There  was  something  sublime  in  the  orator,  and  the  ma 
jesty  with  which  he  spoke." 

His  speech  and  his  conduct  were  fully  endorsed  by 
the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts.  CARL  SCHURZ,  writing 
from  Milwaukee,  said : 

Allow  me  to  congratulate  you  on  the  success  of  your  great  speech. 
It  did  me  good  to  hear  again  the  true  ring  of  the  moral  Anti-Slavery 
sentiment.  If  we  want  to  demolish  the  Slave  Power,  we  must  educate 
the  hearts  of  the  people,  no  less  than  their  heads. 

JOSHUA  R.  GIDDINGS,  so  long  the  champion  of  Free 
dom,  in  Congress,  wrote : 

My  heart  swells  with  gratitude  to  God  that  you  are  again  permitted 
to  stand  in  the  Senate,  and  maintain  the  honor  of  the  nation,  and  of 
mankind. 

GERRIT  SMITH  said : 

God  be  praised  for  the  proof  it  affords  that  you  are  yourself  again — 
aye,  more  than  yourself!  I  say  more,  for,  though  "  The  Crime  against 
Kansas  "  was  the  speech  of  your  life,  this  is  the  speech  of  your  life. 
This  eclipses  that.  The  slaveholders  will  all  read  this  speech,  and  will 
all  be  profited  by  its  clear,  certain,  and  convincing  proofs.  The 
candid  among  them  will  not  dislike  you  for  it ;  not  a  few  of  them  will, 
at  least  in  their  hearts,  thank  and  honor  you  for  it.  Would  that  they 
all  might  see  that  there  is  no  wrong  or  malice  whatever  in  your  heart. 
I  am  scattering  through  my  county  this  great  speech  of  your  life. 

WENDELL  PHILLIPS  :  "  It  is  heart-stirring  and  cheering 
to  hear  your  voice  once  more  along  the  lines.  Those 
were  four  nobly  used  hours.  'Twas  a  blast  of  the  old, 


3IO  THE   GATHERING   STORM. 

well-known    bugle,    and    fell    on    welcoming   ears    and 
thankful  hearts." 

And  so,  by  the  hundred,  came  pouring  in  piles  of 
letters  from  the  most  eminent  statesmen  and  lovers  of 
Freedom  in  every  part  of  the  land,  revealing  the  fact, 
that  a  wider  and  a  deeper  sentiment  ot  indignation  had 
been  awakened  against  the  aggressions  of  the  Slave 
Power,  than  had  been  provoked  even  by  the  atrocities 
of  border  ruffianism  in  the  West. 

III. 

But  many  of  the  leading  journals  of  the  Republican 
party  affected  to  lament  the  delivery  of  the  speech, 
apprehensive  it  would  injure  their  prospects  in  the 
Presidential  campaign  that  was  not  far  off.  But  they 
had  occasion  ere  long  to  talk  in  a  different  strain.  It 
was  fast  becoming  evident  that  the  day  of  compromise 
and  soft  words  had  gone  by  forever — that  what  Mr. 
SEWARD  had  denominated  the  "  Irrepressible  Conflict," 
was  at  hand — that  the  gathering  storm  was  soon  ro 
burst — that  the  loud  threats  of  Secessionists  meant 
something — that  the  feeling  of  the  Slavery  leaders  in 
Congress  was  rapidly  getting  beyond  all  limits  of  con 
trol — that  they  were  determined  to  place  Slavery  once 
more  on  a  solid  basis  of  political  power,  or  break  up 
the  Union.  They  had  everywhere  grown  desperate  ; 
their  insatiate  malice  could  no  longer  be  appeased 
except  with  Sumner's  blood ;  and  all  the  while  they 
were  known,  not  only  to  have  the  sympathy  of  pro- 
Slavery  men  at  the  North,  in  both  the  old  parties,  but 
the  reiterated  assurances  and  guarantees  of  their  leaders 
that  they  could  rely  upon  the  North  in  any  attempt,  no 


THE  BARBARISM  OF  SLAVERY  PORTRAYED.      31! 

matter  how  desperate,  they  might  make,  to  crush  out 
Abolitionism.  In  fact,  many  of  the  Democratic  papers 
at  the  North  seemed  anxious  to  rival  their  brethren  in 
the  South — everywhere  the  strife  was  to  out-Herod 
Herod — and  this  continued  so  until  the  explosion  at  last 
took  place,  when  the  Secessionists  found  of  a  truth, 
that  they  had  aid,  comfort,  abettors,  and  fellow-con 
spirators  all  through  the  North,  especially  in  the  chief 
cities,  which,  in  the  beginning  of  the  Rebellion,  swarmed 
with  angry  and  unscrupulous  men,  ready  to  do  the 
bidding  of  Slavery  and  Secession. 

But  a  great  change  had  been  coming  over  the  public 
mind  in  the  Free  States — a  mighty  revolution  was  going 
on — Slavery  was  becoming  so  hateful  and  odious,  that  at 
last  the  manhood  of  the  North  was  roused,  never  to 
sleep  again  until  some  effectual  check  was  given  to  the 
aggressions  of  Slavery  and  the  insolence  of  its  cham 
pions. 

IV. 

On  the  4th  of  June,  1860,  Senator  Sumner,  in  rising  to 
deliver  his  speech  on  The  Barbarism  of  Slavery,  said  :— 

Mr.  President, — undertaking  now,  after  a  silence  of  more  than  four 
years,  to  address  the  Senate  on  this  important  subject,  I  should  sup 
press  the  emotions  natural  to  such  an  occasion,  if  I  did  not  declare  on 
the  threshold  my  gratitude  to  that  Supreme  Being  through  whose  benign 
care  I  am  enabled,  after  much  suffering  and  many  changes,  once  again 
to  resume  my  duties  here,  and  to  speak  for  the  cause  so  near  my  heart. 
To  the  honored  Commonwealth  whose  representative  I  am,  and  also 
to  my  immediate  associates  in  this  body,  with  whom  I  enjoy  the  fellow 
ship  which  is  found  in  thinking  alike  concerning  the  Republic,  I  owe 
thanks  which  I  seize  the  moment  to  express  for  indulgence  extended 
to  me  throughout  the  protracted  seclusion  enjoined  by  medical  skill ; 
and  I  trust  that  it  will  not  be  thought  unbecoming  in  me  to  put  on 


312  NO   PERSONAL   GRIEFS  TO   UTTER. 

record  here,  as  an  apology  for  leaving  my  seat  so  long  vacant,  without 
making  way,  by  resignation,  for  a  successor,  that  I  acted  under  the  illu 
sion  of  an  invalid,  whose  hopes  for  restoration  to  natural  health  con 
tinued  against  oft-recurring  disappointment. 

When  last  I  entered  into  this  debate,  it  became  my  duty  to  expose 
the  Crime  against  Kansas,  and  to  insist  upon  the  immediate  admission 
of  that  Territory  as  a  State  of  this  Union,  with  a  Constitution  forbidding 
Slavery.  Time  has  passed,  but  the  question  remains.  Resuming  the 
discussion  precisely  where  I  left  it,  I  am  happy  to  avow  that  rule  of 
moderation  which,  it  is  said,  may  venture  to  fix  the  boundaries  of  wis 
dom  itself.  I  have  no  personal  griefs  to  utter  :  only  a  vulgar  egotism 
could  intrude  such  into  this  Chamber.  I  have  no  personal  wrongs  to 
avenge  :  only  a  brutish  nature  could  attempt  to  wield  that  vengeance 
which  belongs  to  the  Lord.  The  years  that  have  intervened  and  the 
tombs  that  have  opened  since  I  spoke  have  their  voices,  too,  which  I 
cannot  fail  to  hear.  Besides,  what  am  I,  what  is  any  man  among  the 
living  or  among  the  dead,  compared  with  the  question  before  us?  It 
is  this  alone  which  I  shall  discuss,  and  I  begin  the  argument  with  that 
easy  victory  which  is  found  in  charity. 

V. 

The  Crime  against  Kansas  stands  forth  in  painful  light.  Search  his 
tory,  and  you  cannot  find  its  parallel.  The  slave-trade  is  bad ;  but  even 
this  enormity  is  petty,  compared  with  that  elaborate  contrivance  by 
which,  in  a  Christian  age  and  within  the  limits  of  a  Republic,  all  forms 
of  constitutional  liberty  were  perverted,  all  the  rights  of  human  nature 
violated,  and  the  whole  country  held  trembling  on  the  edge  of  civil 
war, — while  all  this  large  exuberance  of  wickedness,  detestable  in  itself, 
becomes  tenfold  more  detestable,  when  its  origin  is  traced  to  the  mad 
ness  for  Slavery.  The  fatal  partition  between  Freedom  and  Slavery, 
known  as  the  Missouri  Compromise, — the  subsequent  overthrow  of  this 
partition,  and  the  seizure  of  all  by  Slavery, — the  violation  of  plighted 
faith, — the  conspiracy  to  force  Slavery  at  all  hazards  into  Kansas, — the 
successive  invasions  by  which  all  security  there  was  destroyed,  and  the 
electoral  franchise  itself  was  trodden  down, — the  sacrilegious  seizure  of 
the  very  polls,  and,  through  pretended  forms  of  law,  the  imposition  of 
a  foreign  legislature  upon  this  Territory, — the  acts  of  this  legislature, 
fortifying  the  Usurpation,  and,  among  other  things,  establishing  test- 
oaths,  calculated  to  disfranchise  actual  settlers  friendly  to  Freedom, 


SLAVERY  MUST  BE    DISCUSSED.  313 

and  securing  the  privileges  of  the  citizen  to  actual  strangers  friendly  to 
Slavery, — the  whole  crowned  by  a  statute,  "the  be-all  and  the  end-all" 
of  the  whole  Usurpation,  through  which  Slavery  was  not  only  recog 
nized  on  this  beautiful  soil,  but  made  to  bristle  with  a  Code  of  Death 
such  as  the  world  has  rarely  seen, — all  these  I  fully  exposed  on  a  for 
mer  occasion.  And  yet  the  most  important  part  of  the  argument  was 
at  that  time  left  untouched  :  I  mean  that  found  in  the  Character  of 
Slavery.  This  natural  sequel,  with  the  permission  of  the  Senate,  I  now 
propose  to  supply. 

Motive  is  to  Crime  as  soul  to  body ;  and  it  is  only  when  we  compre 
hend  the  motive  that  we  can  truly  comprehend  the  Crime.  Here  the 
motive  is  found  in  Slavery  and  the  rage  for  its  extension.  Therefore, 
by  logical  necessity,  must  Slavery  be  discussed, — not  indirectly,  timidly, 
and  sparingly,  but  directly,  openly,  and  thoroughly.  It  must  be  ex 
hibited  as  it  is,  alike  in  its  influence  and  its  animating  character,  so  that 
not  only  outside,  but  inside,  may  be  seen. 


VI. 


This  is  no  time  for  soft  words  or  excuses.  All  such  are  out  of  place. 
They  may  turn  away  wrath;  but  what  is  the  wrath  of  man?  This  is  no 
time  to  abandon  any  advantage  in  the  argument.  Senators  sometimes 
announce  that  they  resist  Slavery  on  political  grounds  only,  and  remind 
us  that  they  say  nothing  of  the  moral  question.  This  is  wrong.  Slavery 
must  be  resisted  not  only  on  political  grounds,  but  on  all  other  grounds, 
whether  social,  economical,  or  moral.  Ours  is  no  holiday  contest ;  nor 
is  it  any  strife  of  rival  factions,  of  White  and  Red  Roses,  of  theatric 
Neri  and  Bianchi ;  but  it  is  a  solemn  battle  between  Right  and  Wrong, 
between  Good  and  Evil.  Such  a  battle  cannot  be  fought  with  rosewa- 
ter.  There  is  austere  work  to  be  done,  and  Freedom  cannot  consent 
to  fling  away  any  of  her  weapons. 

if  I  were  disposed  to  shrink  from  this  discussion,  the  boundless  as 
sumptions  made  by  Senators  on  the  other  side  would  not  allow  me. 
The  whole  character  of  Slavery,  as  a  pretended  form  of  Civilization,  is 
put  directly  in  issue,  with  a  pertinacity  and  a  hardihood  which  banish  all 
reserve  on  this  side.  In  these  assumptions  Senators  from  South  Caro 
lina  naturally  take  the  lead.  Following  Mr.  Calhoun,  who  pronounced 
Slavery  "  the  most  solid  and  durable  foundation  on  which  to  rear  free 
and  stable  political  institutions,"  and  Mr.  McDufne,  who  did  not  shrink 


3H  ARROGANT  ASSUMPTIONS   OF  SLAVERY. 

from  calling  it  "  the  corner-stone  of  our  republican  edifice,"  the  Senator 
from  South  Carolina  [Mr.  Hammond]  insists  that  its  "  frame  of  society 
is  the  best  in  the  world  ;"  and  his  Colleague  [Mr.  Chesnut]  takes  up 
the  strain.  One  Senator  from  Mississippi  [Mr.  Jefferson  Davis]  adds, 
that  Slavery  "  is  but  a  form  of  civil  government  for  those  who  by  their 
nature  are  not  fit  to  govern  themselves ; "  and  his  cplleague  [Mr.  Brown] 
openly  vaunts  that  it  "  is  a  great  moral,  social,  and  political  blessing, — 
a  blessing  to  the  slave,  and  a  blessing  to  the  master."  One  Senator 
from  Virginia  [Mr.  Hunter],  in  a  studied  vindication  of  what  he  is 
pleased  to  call  "  the  social  system  of  the  South,"  exalts  Slavery  as  "  the 
normal  condition  of  human  society,"  "  beneficial  to  the  non-slave-owner 
as  it  is  to  the  slave-owner,"  "  best  for  the  happiness  of  both  races,"- 
and,  in  enthusiastic  advocacy,  declares,  "  that  the  very  keystone  of  the 
mighty  arch,  which,  by  its  concentrated  strength,  and  by  the  mutual 
support  of  its  parts,  is  able  to  sustain  our  social  superstructure,  consists 
in  the  black-marble  block  of  African  Slavery :  knock  that  out,  and  the 
mighty  fabric,  with  all  that  it  upholds,  topples  and  tumbles  to  its  fall." 
These  are  his  very  words,  uttered  in  debate  here.  And  his  colleague 
[Mr.  Mason],  who  never  hesitates  where  Slavery  is  in  question,  pro 
claims  that  it  is  "  ennobling  to  both  races,  the  white  and  the  black, "- 
a  word  which,  so  far  as  the  slave  is  concerned,  he  changes,  on  a  subse 
quent  day,  to  "elevating,"  assuming  stiU  that  it  is  " ennobling"  to  the 
whites, — which  is  simply  a  new  version  of  the  old  assumption,  by  Mr. 
McDuffie,  of  South  Carolina,  that  "  the  institution  of  Domestic  Slavery 
supersedes  the  necessity  of  an  order  of  nobility." 


VII. 


Thus,  by  various  voices,  is  Slavery  defiantly  proclaimed  a  form  of 
Civilization, — not  seeing  that  its  existence  is  plainly  inconsistent  with 
the  first  principles  of  anything  that  can  be  called  Civilization,  except 
by  that  figure  of  speech  in  classical  literature  where  a  thing  takes  its 
name  from  something  which  it  has  not,  as  the  dreadful  Fates  were  called 
merciful  because  they  were  without  mercy.  Pardon  the  allusion,  if  I 
add,  that,  listening  to  these  sounding  words  for  Slavery,  I  am  reminded 
of  the  kindred  extravagance  related  by  that  remarkable  traveller  in 
China,  the  late  Abbe  Hue,  where  a  gloomy  hole  in  which  he  was  lodged, 
infested  by  mosquitoes  and  exhaling  noisome  vapors,  with  light  and  air 
entering  by  a  single  narrow  aperture  only,  was  styled  by  Chinese  pride 


SATAN  ALWAYS   SATAN.  315 

"The  Hotel  of  the  Beatitudes."  According  to  a  Hindoo  proverb,  the 
snail  sees  nothing  but  its  own  shell,  and  thinks  it  the  grandest  palace 
in  the  universe.  This  is  another  illustration  of  the  delusion  which  we 
are  called  to  witness. 

It  is  natural  that  Senators  thus  insensible  to  the  true  character  of 
Slavery  should  evince  an  equal  insensibility  to  the  true  character  of  the 
Constitution.  This  is  shown  in  the  claim  now  made,  and  pressed  with 
unprecedented  energy,  degrading  the  work  of  our  fathers,  that  by  virtue 
of  the  Constitution  the  pretended  property  in  man  is  placed  beyond 
the  reach  of  Congressional  prohibition  even  within  Congressional  juris 
diction,  so  that  the  slave-master  may  at  all  times  enter  the  broad  out 
lying  territories  of  the  Union  with  the  victims  of  his  oppression,  and 
there  continue  to  hold  them  by  lash  and  chain. 

Such  are  two  assumptions,  the  first  of  fact,  and  the  second  of  Consti 
tutional  Law,  now  vaunted  without  apology  or  hesitation.  I  meet  them 
both.  To  the  first  I  oppose  the  essential  Barbarism  of  Slavery,  in  all 
its  influences,  whether  high  or  low, — as  Satan  is  Satan  still,  whether 
towering  in  the  sky  or  squatting  in  the  toad.  To  the  second  I  oppose 
the  unanswerable,  irresistible  truth,  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  nowhere  recognizes  property  in  man.  These  two  assumptions 
naturally  go  together.  They  are  "  twins "  suckled  by  the  same  wolf. 
They  are  the  "couple"  in  the  present  slave-hunt.  And  the  latter  can 
not  be  answered  without  exposing  the  former.  It  is  only  when  Slavery 
is  exhibited  in  its  truly  hateful  character  that  we  fully  appreciate  the 
absurdity  of  the  assumption,  which,  in  defiance  of  express  letter  in  the 
Constitution,  and  without  a  single  sentence,  phrase,  or  word  upholding 
human  bondage,  yet  foists  into  this  blameless  text  the  barbarous  idea 
that  man  can  hold  property  in  man. 

On  former  occasions  I  have  discussed  Slavery  only  incidentally  ;  as, 
in  unfolding  the  principle  that  Slavery  is  Sectional  and  Freedom  Na 
tional  ;  in  exposing  the  unconstitutionally  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill ; 
in  vindicating  the  Prohibition  of  Slavery  in  the  Missouri  Territory ;  in 
exhibiting  the  imbecility,  throughout  the  Revolution,  of  the  Slave  States, 
and  especially  of  South  Carolina  ;  and,  lastly,  in  unmasking  the  Crime 
against  Kansas.  On  all  these  occasions,  where  I  spoke  at  length,  I  said 
too  little  of  the  character  of  Slavery, — partly  because  other  topics  were 
presented,  and  partly  from  a  prevailing  disinclination  to  press  the  argu 
ment  against  those  whom  I  knew  to  have  all  the  sensitiveness  of  a  sick 
man.  But,  God  be  praised,  this  time  has  passed,  and  the  debate  is 
now  lifted  from  details  to  principles.  Grander  debate  has  not  occurred 


316  SLAVERY'S  FIRST  ASSUMPTION. 

in  our  history, — rarely  in  any  history ;  nor  can  it  close  or  subside,  ex 
cept  with  the  triumph  of  Freedom. 

VIII. 

FIRST  ASSUMPTION. 

Of  course  I  begin  with  the  assumption  of  fact,  which  must  be  treated 
at  length. 

It  was  the  often- quoted  remark  of  John  Wesley,  who  knew  well  how 
to  use  words,  as  also  how  to  touch  hearts,  that  Slavery  is  "  the  sum  of 
all  villainies."  The  phrase  is  pungent ;  but  it  were  rash  in  any  of  us  to 
criticise  the  testimony  of  that  illustrious  founder  of  Methodism,  whose 
ample  experience  of  Slavery  in  Georgia  and  the  Carolinas  seems  to 
have  been  all  condensed  in  this  sententious  judgment.  Language  is 
feeble  to  express  all  the  enormity  of  an  institution  which  is  now  exalted 
as  in  itself  a  form  of  civilization,  "  ennobling"  at  least  to  the  master,  if 
not  to  the  slave.  Look  at  it  as  you  will,  and  it  is  always  the  scab,  the 
canker,  the  "  barebones,"  and  the  shame  of  the  country, — wrong,  not 
merely  in  the  abstract,  as  is  often  admitted  by  its  apologists,  but  wrong 
in  the  concrete  also,  and  possessing  no  single  element  of  right.  Look 
at  it  in  the  light  of  principle,  and  it  is  nothing  less  than  a  huge  insur 
rection  against  the  eternal  law  of  God,  involving  in  its  pretensions  the 
denial  of  all  human  rights,  and  also  the  denial  of  that  Divine  Law  in 
which  God  himself  is  manifest,  thus  being  practically  the  grossest  lie 
and  the  grossest  atheism.  Founded  in  violence,  sustained  only  by  vio 
lence,  such  a  wrong  must  by  sure  law  of  compensation  blast  master  as 
well  as  slave, — blast  the  lands  on  which  they  live,  blast  the  community 
of  which  they  are  part,  blast  the  government  which  does  not  forbid  the 
outrage ;  and  the  longer  it  exists  and  the  more  completely  it  prevails, 
must  its  vengeful  influences  penetrate  the  whole  social  system.  Bar 
barous  in  origin,  barbarous  in  law,  barbarous  in  all  its  pretensions,  bar 
barous  in  the  instruments  it  employs,  barbarous  in  consequences, 
barbarous  in  spirit,  barbarous  wherever  it  shows  itself,  Slavery  must 
breed  Barbarians,  while  it  develops  everywhere,  alike  in  the  individual 
and  the  society  to  which  he  belongs,  the  essential  elements  of  Ba?uar- 
ism.  In  this  character  it  is  conspicuous  before  the  world. 

Undertaking  now  to  expose  the  BARBARISM  OF  SLAVERY,  the  whole 
broad  field  is  open  before  me.  There  is  nothing  in  its  character,  its 
manifold  wrong,  its  wretched  results,  and  especially  in  its  influence  on 


TWO   CIVILIZATIONS   IMPOSSIBLE.  3*7 

the  class  claiming  to  be  ''ennobled"  by  it,  that  will  not  fall  naturally 
under  consideration. 

IX. 

I  know  well  the  difficulty  of  this  discussion,  involved  in  the  humili 
ating  truth  with  which  I  begin.  Senators,  on  former  occasions,  reveal 
ing  their  sensitiveness,  have  even  protested  against  comparison  between 
what  were  called  "  two  civilizations," — meaning  the  two  social  systems 
produced  respectively  by  Freedom  and  Slavery.  The  sensibility  and 
the  protest  are  not  unnatural,  though  mistaken.  "Two  civilizations  ! " 
Sir,  in  this  nineteenth  century  of  Christian  light  there  can  be  but  one 
Civilization,  and  this  is  where  Freedom  prevails.  Between  Slavery  and 
Civilization  there  is  essential  incompatibility.  If  you  are  for  the  one, 
you  cannot  be  for  the  other ;  and  just  in  proportion  to  the  embrace  of 
Slavery  is  the  divorce  from  Civilization.  As  cold  is  but  the  absence  of 
heat,  and  darkness  but  the  absence  of  light,  so  is  Slavery  but  the  absence 
of  justice  and  humanity,  without  which  Civilization  is  impossible.  That 
slave-masters  should  be  disturbed,  when  this  is  exposed,  might  be  ex 
pected.  But  the  assumptions  so  boastfully  made,  while  they  may  not 
prevent  the  sensibility,  yet  surely  exclude  all  ground  of  protest,  when 
these  assumptions  are  exposed. 

Nor  is  this  the  only  difficulty.  Slavery  is  a  bloody  Touch-Me-Not, 
and  everywhere  in  sight  now  blooms  the  bloody  flower.  It  is  on  the 
wayside  as  we  approach  the  National  Capitol ;  it  is  on  the  marble  steps 
which  we  mount ;  it  flaunts  on  this  floor.  I  stand  now  in  the  house  of 
its  friends.  About  me,  while  I  speak,  are  its  most  jealous  guardians,  who 
have  shown  in  the  past  how  much  they  are  ready  to  do  or  not  to  do, 
where  Slavery  is  in  question.  Menaces  to  deter  me  have  not  been 
spared.  But  I  should  ill  deserve  the  high  post  of  duty  here,  with  which 
I  am  honored  by  a  generous  and  enlightened  people,  if  I  could  hesitate. 
Idolatry  has  been  exposed  in  the  presence  of  idolaters,  and  hypocrisy 
chastised  in  the  presence  of  Scribes  and  Pharisees.  Such  examples 
may  impart  encouragement  to  a  Senator  undertaking  in  this  presence 
to  expose  Slavery ;  nor  can  any  language,  directly  responsive  to  Senatorial 
assumptions  made  for  this  Barbarism,  be  open  to  question.  Slavery 
can  be  painted  only  in  sternest  colors;  nor  can  I  forget  that  Nature's 
sternest  painter  has  been  called  the  best. 

THE  BARBARISM  OF  SLAVERY  appears,  frst,  in  the  character  of 
Slavery,  and,  secondly,  in  the  character  of  Slave-Masters. 


3l8  HE  LETS   SLAVERY   PAINT  ITSELF. 

Under  the  first  head  we  shall  properly  consider  (i)  the  Law  of  Slavery 
with  its  Origin,  and  (2)  the  practical  results  of  Slavery,  as  shown  in  com 
parison  between  the  Free  States  and  the  Slave  States. 

Under  the  second  head  we  shall  naturally  consider  (i)  Slave-Masters 
as  shown  in  the  Law  of  Slavery  ;  (2)  Slave-Masters  in  their  relations 
with  slaves,  here  glancing  at  their  three  brutal  instruments  ;  (3)  Slave- 
Masters  in  their  relations  with  each  other,  with  society,  and  with  Gov 
ernment  ;  and  (4)  Slave-Masters  in  their  unconsciousness. 

The  way  will  then  be  prepared  for  the  consideration  of  the  assump 
tion  of  Constitutional  Law. 

X. 

In  presenting  the  CHARACTER  OF  SLAVERY,  there  is  little  for  me,  ex 
cept  to  make  Slavery  paint  itself.  When  this  is  done,  the  picture  will 
need  no  explanatory  words. 

(i.)  I  begin  with  the  Law  of  Slavery  and  its  Origin  ;  and  here  this 
Barbarism  sketches  itself  in  its  own  chosen  definition.  It  is  simply 
this :  Man,  created  in  the  image  of  God,  is  divested  of  the  human  char 
acter,  and  declared  to  be  a  "  chattel," — that  is,  a  beast,  a  thing,  or 
article  of  property.  That  this  statement  may  not  seem  made  without 
precise  authority,  I  quote  the  statutes  of  three  different  States,  begin 
ning  with  South  Carolina,  whose  voice  for  Slavery  has  always  unerring 
distinctiveness.  According  to  the  definition  supplied  by  this  State, 
slaves 

"shall  be  deemed,  held,  taken,  reputed,  and  adjudged  in  law  to  be 
chattels  personal  in  the  hands  of  .their  owners  and  possessors,  and  their 
executors,  administrators,  and  assigns,  to  all  intents,  constructions,  and 
purposes  whatsoever." 

And  here  is  the  definition  supplied  by  the  Civil  Code  of  Louisiana  :— 

"A  slave  is  one  who  is  in  the  power  of  a  master  to  whom  he  belongs. 
The  master  may  sell  him,  dispose  of  his  person,  his  industry,  and  his 
labor.  He  can  do  nothing,  possess  nothing,  nor  acquire  anything,  but 
what  must  belong  to  his  master." 

In  similar  spirit  the  law  of  Maryland  thus  indirectly  defines  a  slave  as 
an  article: — 

"  In  case  the  personal  property  of  a  ward  shall  consist  of  specific 
articles,  such  as  slaves,  working  beasts,  animals  of  any  kind,  ....  the 
court,  if  it  shall  deem  it  advantageous  for  the  ward,  may  at  any  time 
pass  an  order  for  the  sale  thereof." 

Not  to  occupy  time  unnecessarily,  I  present  a  summary  of  the  pre- 


THE   SLAVE  FOR  THE  MASTER'S   USE.  319 

tended  law  defining  Slavery  in  all  the  Slave  States,  as  made  by  a  careful 
writer,  Judge  Stroud,  in  a  work  of  juridical  as  well  as  philanthropic 
merit : — 

"The  cardinal  principle  of  Slavery — that  the  slave  is  not  to  be  ranked 
among  setitient  beings,  but  among  things,  is  an  article  of  property,  a 
chattel  personal — obtains  as  undoubted  law  in  all  of  these  [Slave] 
States." 

Out  of  this  definition,  as  from  a  solitary  germ,  which  in  its  pettiness 
might  be  crushed  by  the  hand,  towers  our  Upas  Tree  and  all  its  gigan 
tic  poison.  Study  it,  and  you  will  comprehend  the  whole  monstrous 
growth. 

Sir,  look  at  its  plain  import,  and  see  the  relation  which  it  establishes. 
The  slave  is  held  simply  for  the  use  of  his  master,  to  whose  behests  his 
life,  liberty,  and  happiness  are  devoted,  and  by  whom  he  may  be  bartered, 
leased,  mortgaged,  bequeathed,  invoiced,  shipped  as  cargo,  stored  as 
goods,  sold  on  execution,  knocked  off  at  public  auction,  and  even 
staked  at  tne  gaming-table  on  the  hazard  of  a  card  or  a  die, — all  accord 
ing  to  law.  Nor  is  there  anything,  within  the  limit  of  life,  inflicted  on  a 
beast,  which  may  not  be  inflicted  on  the  slave.  He  may  be  marked 
like  a  hog,  branded  like  a  mule,  yoked  like  an  ox,  hobbled  like  a  horse, 
driven  like  an  ass,  sheared  like  a  sheep,  maimed  like  a  cur,  and  con 
stantly  beaten  like  a  brute, — all  according  to  law.  And  should  life 
itself  be  taken,  what  is  the  remedy  ?  The  Law  of  Slavery,  imitating 
that  rule  of  evidence  which  in  barbarous  days  and  barbarous  countries 
prevented  the  Christian  from  testifying  against  the  Mahometan,  openly 
pronounces  the  incompetency  of  the  whole  African  race,  whether  bond 
or  free,  to  testify  against  a  white  man  in  any  case,  and  thus,  after  sur 
rendering  the  slave  to  all  possible  outrage,  crowns  its  tyranny  by  exclud 
ing  the  very  testimony  through  which  the  bloody  cruelty  of  the  Slave- 
Master  might  be  exposed. 

Thus  in  its  Law  does  Slavery  paint  itself;  but  it  is  only  when  we  look 
at  details,  and  detect  its  essential  elements,  five  in  number,  all  inspired 
by  a  single  motive,  that  its  character  becomes  completely  manifest. 

XL 

Foremost,  of  course,  in  these  elements,  is  the  impossible  pretension, 
where  Barbarism  is  lost  in  impiety,  by  which  man  claims  property  in  man. 
Against  such  blasphemy  the  argument  is  brief.  According  to  the  Law 
of  Nature,  written  by  the  same  hand  that  placed  the  planets  in  their 


32O  THE  ABROGATION   OF   MARRIAGE. 

orbits,  and,  like  them,  constituting  part  of  the  eternal  system  of  the 
Universe,  every  human  being  has  complete  title  to  himself  direct  from 
the  Almighty.  Naked  he  is  born  ;  but  this  birthright  is  inseparable 
from  the  human  form.  A  man  may  be  poor  in  this  world's  goods  ;  but 
he  owns  himself.  No  war  or  robbery,  ancient  or  recent, — no  capture — 
no  middle  passage, — no  change  of  clime, — no  purchase  money, — no 
transmission  from  hand  to  hand,  no  matter  ho*.v  many  times,  and  no 
matter  at  what  price,  can  defeat  this  indefeasible,  God-given  franchise. 
And  a  divine  mandate,  strong  as  that  which  guards  Life,  guards  Liberty 
also.  Even  at  the  very  morning  of  Creation,  when  God  said,  "  Let 
there  be  light," — earlier  than  the  malediction  against  murder. — he  set 
the  everlasting  difference  between  man  and  chattel,  giving  to  man  "do 
minion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and  over  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  over 
every  living  thing  that  moveth  upon  the  earth." 

"  That  right  we  hold 
By  his  donation  ;  hut  man  over  men 
He  made  not  lord :  such  title  to  himself 
Reserving,  human  left  from  human  free." 

Slavery  tyrannically  assumes  power  which  Heaven  denied, — while,  un 
der  its  barbarous  necromancy,  borrowed  from  the  Source  of  Evil,  a  man 
is  changed  into  a  chattel,  a  person  is  withered  into  a  thing,  a  soul  is 
shrunk  intb  merchandise.  Say,  Sir,  in  lofty  madness,  that  you  own  the 
sun,  the  stars,  the  moon ;  but  do  not  say  that  you  own  a  man,  endowed 
with  soul  to  live  immortal,  when  sun  and  moon  and  stars  have  passed 
away. 


XII. 

Secondly.  Slavery  paints  itself  again  in  its  complete  abrogation  of 
marriage,  recognized  as  a  sacrament  by  the  Church,  and  as  a  contract 
by  the  civil  power,  wherever  civilization  prevails.  Under  the  Law  of 
Slavery  no  such  sacrament  is  respected,  and  no  such  contract  can  exist. 
The  ties  formed  between  slavey  are  all  subject  to  the  selfish  interests  or 
more  selfish  lust  of  the  master,  whose  license  knows  no  check.  Natu 
ral  affections  which  have  come  together  are  rudely  torn  asunder :  nor 
is  this  all.  Stripped  of  every  defence,  the  chastity  of  a  whole  race  is 
exposed  to  violence,  while  the  result  is  recorded  in  tell-tale  faces  of 
children,  glowing  with  a  master's  blood,  but  doomed  for  their  mother's 
skin  to  Slavery  through  descending  generations.  The  Senator  from 


ABROGATION   OF   THE   PARENTAL   RELATION.  321 

Mississippi  [Mr.  Brown],  galled  by  the  comparison  between  Slavery  and 
Polygamy,  winces.  .  I  hail  this  sensibility  as  the  sign  of  virtue.  Let 
him  reflect,  and  he  will  confess  that  there  are  many  disgusting  elements 
in  Slavery,  not  present  in  Polygamy,  while  the  single  disgusting  element 
of  Polygamy  is  more  than  present  in  Slavery.  By  license  of  Polygamy, 
one  man  may  have  many  wives,  all  bound  to  him  by  marriage-tie,  and 
in  other  respects  protected  by  law.  By  license  of  Slavery,  a  whole  race 
is  delivered  over  to  prostitution  and  concubinage,  without  the  protec 
tion  of  any  law.  Surely,  Sir,  is  not  Slavery  barbarous  ? 

Thirdly.  Slavery  paints  itself  again  in  its  complete  abrogation  of  the 
parental  relation,  provided  by  God  in  his  benevolence  for  the  nurture 
and  education  of  the  human  family,  and  constituting  an  essential  part 
of  Civilization  itself.  And  yet  by  the  Law  of  Slavery — happily  begin 
ning  to  be  modified  in  some  places — this  relation  is  set  at  nought,  and 
in  its  place  is  substituted  the  arbitrary  control  of  the  master,  at  whose 
mere  command  little  children,  such  as  the  Saviour  called  unto  him, 
though  clasped  by  a  mother's  arms,  are  swept  under  the  hammer  of  the 
auctioneer.  I  do  not  dwell  on  this  exhibition.  Sir,  is  not  Slavery  bar 
barous  ? 

fourthly.  Slavery  paints  itself  again  in  closing  the  gates  of  knowledge, 
which  are  also  the  shining  gates  of  Civilization.  Under  its  plain,  un 
equivocal  law,  the  bondman,  at  the  unrestrained  will  of  his  master,  is 
shut  out  from  all  instruction  ;  while  in  many  places —  incredible  to  re 
late — the  law  itself,  by  cumulative  provisions,  positively  forbids  that  he 
shall  be  taught  to  read  !  Of  course  the  slave  cannot  be  allowed  to 
read  :  for  his  soul  would  then  expand  in  larger  air,  while  he  saw  the 
glory  of  the  North  Star,  and  also  the  helping  truth,  that  God,  who  made 
iron,  never  made  a  slave  ;  for  he  would  then  become  familiar  with  the 
Scriptures,  with  the  Decalogue  still  speaking  in  the  thunders  of  Sinai,— 
with  that  ancient  text,  "  He  that  stealeth  a  man  and  selleth  him,  or  if 
he  be  found  in  his  hand,  he  shall  surely  be  put  to  death  " — with  that 
other  text,  "  Masters,  give  unto  your  servants  that  which  is  just  and 
equal," — with  that  great  story  of  Redemption,  when  the  Lord  raised 
the  slave-born  Moses  to  deliver  his  chosen  people  from  the  house  of 
bondage, — and  with  that  sublimer  story,  where  the  Saviour  died  a  cruel 
death,  that  all  men,  without  distinction  of  race,  might  be  saved,  leaving 
to  mankind  a  commandment  which,  even  without  his  example,  makes 
Slavery  impossible.  Thus,  in  order  to  fasten  your  manacles  upon  the 
slave,  you  fasten  other  manacles  upon  his  soul.  The  ancients  main 
tained  Slavery  by  chains  and  death  :  you  maintain  it  by  that  infinite 

21 


322  APPROPRIATION   OF    THE    SLAVE'S   TOIL. 

despotism  and  monopoly  through  which  human  nature  itself  is  degraded. 
Sir,  is  not  Slavery  barbarous  ? 

Fifthly.  Slavery  paints  itself  again  in  the  appropriation  of  all  the 
toil  of  its  victims,  excluding  them  from  that  property  in  their  own  earn 
ings  which  the  Law  of  Nature  allows  and  Civilization  secures.  The 
painful  injustice  of  this  pretension  is  lost  in  its  meanness.  It  is  robbery 
and  petty  larceny  under  garb  of  law.  And  even  the  meanness  is  lost 
in  the  absurdity  of  its  associate  pretension,  that  the  African,  thus  des 
poiled  of  all  earnings,  is  saved  from  poverty,  and  that  for  his  own  good 
he  must  work  for  his  master,  and  not  for  himself.  Alas,  by  such  fallacy 
is  a  whole  race  pauperized  !  And  yet  this  transaction  is  not  without 
illustrative  example.  A  sombre  poet,  whose  verse  has  found  wide  favor, 
pictures  a  creature  who 

"  with  one  hand  put 
A  penny  in  the  urn  of  poverty, 
And  with  the  other  took  a  shilling  out." 

And  a  celebrated  traveller  through  Russia,  more  than  a  generation  ago, 
describes  a  kindred  spirit,  who,  while  devoutly  crossing  himself  at  church 
with  his  right  hand,  with  the  left  deliberately  picked  the  pocket  of  a  fel- 
llow-sinner  by  his  side.  Not  admiring  these  instances,  I  cannot  cease 
'to  deplore  a  system  which  has  much  of  both,  while,  under  affectation 
of  charity,  it  sordidly  takes  from  the  slave  all  the  fruits  of  his  bitter 
sweat,  and  thus  takes  from  him  the  main  spring  to  exertion.  Tell  me, 
.Sir,  is  not  Slavery  barbarous? 

XIII. 

Such  is  Slavery  in  its  five  special  elements  of  Barbarism,  as  recog 
nized  by  law  :  first,  assuming  that  man  can  hold  property  in  man  ;  sec 
ondly,  abrogating  the  relation  of  husband  and  wife  ;  thirdly,  abrogating 
the  parental  tie  ;  fourthly,  closing  the  gates  of  knowledge  ;  and,  fifthly, 
.appropriating  the  unpaid  labor  of  another.  Take  away  these  elements, 
rsometimes  called  "abuses,"  and  Slavery  will  cease  to  exist;  for  it  is 
these  very  "abuses"  which  constitute  Slavery.  Take  away  any  one  of 
them,  and  the  abolition  of  Slavery  begins.  And  when  I  present  Slavery 
for  judgment,  I  mean  no  slight  evil,  with  regard  to  which  there  may  be 
reasonable  difference  of  opinion,  but  I  mean  this  fivefold  embodiment 
of  "  abuse,"  this  ghastly  quincunx  of  Barbarism,  each  particular  of  which, 
if  considered  separately,  must  be  denounced  at  once  with  all  the  ardor 


JEAN  JACQUES   ROUSSEAU— DR.    CHANNING.  323 

of  an  honest  soul,  while  the  whole  fivefold  combination  must  awake  a 
fivefold  denunciation.  The  historic  pirates,  once  the  plague  of  the  Gulf 
whose  waters  they  plundered,  have  been  praised  for  the  equity  with 
which  they  adjusted  the  ratable  shares  of  spoil,  and  also  for  generous 
benefactions  to  the  poor,  and  even  to  churches,  so  that  Sir  Walter  Scott 
could  say, — 

"  Do  thou  revere 
The  statutes  of  the  Buccaneer." 

In  our  Law  of  Slavery  what  is  there  to  revere  ?  what  is  there  at  which 
the  soul  does  not  rise  in  abhorrence  ? 

But  this  fivefold  combination  becomes  yet  more  hateful  when  its  sin 
gle  motive  is  considered ;  and  here  Slavery  paints  itself  finally.  The 
Senator  from  Mississippi  [Mr.  Jefferson  Davis]  says  that  it  is  "  but  a 
form  of  civil  government  for  those  who  by  their  nature  are  not  fit  to 
govern  themselves."  The  Senator  is  mistaken.  It  is  an  outrage,  where 
five  different  pretensions  all  concur  in  one  single  object,  looking  only 
to  the  profit  of  the  master,  and  constituting  its  ever-present  motive 
power,  which  is  simply  to  compel  the  labor  of  fellow-men  without  wages. 
If  I  pronounce  this  object  not  only  barbarous,  but  brutal,  I  follow  the 
judgment  of  Luther's  Bible,  in  the  book  "  Jesus  Sirach,"  known  in  our 
translation  as  Ecclesiasticus,  where  it  is  said  :  "He  that  giveth  not  his 
wages  to  the  laborer,  he  is  a  bloodhound" 

Slavery  is  often  exposed  as  degrading  Humanity.  On  this  fruitful 
theme  nobody  ever  expressed  himself  with  the  force  and  beautiful 
eloquence  of  our  own  Channing.  His  generous  soul  glowed  with  indig 
nation  at  the  thought  of  man,  supremest  creature  of  earth,  and  first  of 
God's  works,  despoiled  of  manhood  and  changed  to  a  thing.  But  earlier 
than  Channing  was  Jean  Jacques  Rousseau,  who,'  with  similar  eloquence 
and  the  same  glowing  indignation,  vindicated  Humanity.  How  grandly 
he  insists  that  nobody  can  consent  to  be  a  slave,  or  can  be  born  a 
slave  !  Believing  Liberty  the  most  noble  of  human  attributes,  this 
wonderful  writer  will  not  stop  to  consider  if  descent  to  the  condition  of 
beasts  be  not  to  degrade  human  nature,  if  renunciation  of  the  most 
precious  of  all  God's  gifts  be  not  to  offend  the  Author  of  our  being ; 
but  he  demands  only  by  what  right  those  who  degrade  themselves  to 
this  depth  can  subject  their  posterity  to  the  same  ignominy,  renouncing 
for  them  goods  which  do  not  depend  upon  any  ancestors,  and  without 
which  life  itself  is  to  all  worthy  of  it  a  burden  ;  and  he  justly  concludes, 
that,  as  to  establish  Slavery,  it  is  necessary  to  violate  Nature,  so,  to 


324  DEGRADATION   OF    A   WHOLE    RACE. 

perpetuate  this  claim,  it  is  necessary  to  change  Nature.  His  final 
judgment,  being  the  practical  conclusion  of  this  outburst,  holds  up  ju 
risconsults,  gravely  pronouncing  that  the  child  of  a  slave  born  a  slave,  as 
deciding,  in  other  terms,  that  a  man  is  not  born  a  man, — thus  exposing 
the  peculiar  absurdity  of  that  pretension  by  which  Slavery  is  transmit 
ted  from  the  mother  to  her  offspring,  as  expressed  in  the  Latin  scrap  on 
which  the  Senator  from  Virginia  [Mr.  MASON]  relies  :  Partus  seguititr 
ventrem. 

If  the  offense  of  Slavery  were  less  extended,  if  it  were  confined  to 
some  narrow  region,  if  it  had  less  of  grandeur  in  its  proportions, 
of  its  victims  were  counted  by  tens  and  hundreds  instead  of 
millions,  the  five-headed  enormity  would  find  little  indulgence  ;  all 
would  rise  against  it,  while  Religion  and  Civilization  would  lavish 
choicest  efforts  in'  the  general  warfare.  But  what  is  wrong  when  done 
to  one  man  cannot  be  right  when  done  to  many.  If  it  is  wrong 
thus  to  degrade  a  single  soul,  if  it  is  wrong  thus  to  degrade 
you,  Mr.  President,  it  cannot  be  right  to  degrade  a  whole  race  !  • 
And  yet  this  is  denied  by  the  barbarous  logic  of  Slavery,  which,  taking 
advantage  of  its  own  wrong,  claims  immunity  because  its  usurpation  has 
assumed  a  front  of  audacity  that  cannot  be  safely  attacked.  Unhappily 
there  is  Barbarism  elsewhere  in  the  world ;  but  American  Slavery, 
as  defined  by  existing  law,  stands  forth  as  the  greatest  organized  Bar 
barism  on  which  the  sun  now  looks.  It  is  without  a  single  peer.  Its 
author,  after  making  it,  broke  the  die. 


XIV. 

If  curiosity  carries  us  to  the  origin  of  this  law, — and  here  I  approach 
a  topic  often  considered  in  this  Chamber, — we  shall  again  confess  its 
Barbarism.  It  is  not  derived  from  the  Common  Law,  that  fountain  of 
Liberty  ;  for  this  law,  while  unhappily  recognizing  a  system  of  servitude 
known  as  villeinage,  secured  to  the  bondman  privileges  unknown  to  the 
American  slave, — guarded  his  person  against  mayhem, — protected  his 
wife  against  rape, — gave  to  his  marriage  equal  validity  with  the  marriage 
of  his  master, — and  surrounded  his  offspring  with  generous  presumptions 
of  Freedom,  unlike  that  rule  of  yours  by  which  the  servitude  of  the 
mother  is  necessarily  stamped  upon  the  child.  It  is  not  derived  from 
the  Roman  Law,  that  fountain  of  Tyranny,  for  two  reasons  :  first,  be 
cause  this  law,  in  its  better  days,  when  its  early  rigors  were  spent,  like 


ORIGIN   OF   SLAVERY   IN   AFRICA.  325 

the  Common  Law  itself,  secured  to  the  bondman  privileges  unknown 
to  the  American  slave, — in  certain  cases  of  cruelty  rescued  him  from 
his  master,  prevented  separation  of  parents  and  children,  also  of  broth 
ers  and  sisters,  and  even  protected  him  in  the  marriage  relation  ;  and, 
secondly,  because  the  Thirteen  Colonies  were  not  derived  from  any  of 
those  countries  which  recognized  the  Roman  Law,  while  this  law,  even 
before  the  discovery  of  this  continent,  had  lost  all  living  efficacy.  It  is 
not  derived  from  the  Mohammedan  Law ;  for,  under  the  mild  injunc 
tions  of  the  Koran,  a  benignant  servitude,  unlike  yours,  has  prevailed, 
— where  the  lash  is  not  allowed  to  lacerate  the  back  of  a  female, — 
where  no  knife  or  branding-iron  is  employed  upon  any  human  being, 
to  mark  him  as  the  property  of  his  fellow-man, — where  the  master  is 
expressly  enjoined  to  listen  to  the  desires  of  his  slave  for  emancipa 
tion, — and  where  the  blood  of  the  master,  mingling  with  that  of  his 
bondwoman,  takes  from  her  the  transferable  character  of  chattel,  and 
confers  complete  freedom  upon  their  offspring.  It  is  not  derived  from 
the  Spanish  Law  ;  for  this  law  contains  hnmane  elements  unknown  to 
your  system,  borrowed,  perhaps,  from  Mohammedan  Moors  who  so 
long  occupied  Spain  ;  and,  besides,  our  Thirteen  Colonies  had  no  um 
bilical  connection  with  Spain.  Nor  is  it  derived  from  English  statutes 
or  American  statutes  ;  for  we  have  the  positive  and  repeated  averment 
of  the  Senator  from  Virginia  [Mr.  MASON],  and  also  of  other  Senators, 
that  in  not  a  single  State  of  the  Union  can  any  such  statutes  establishing 
Slavery  be  found.  From  none  of  these  does  it  come. 

No,  Sir,  not  from  any  land  of  Civilization  is  this  Barbarism  derived. 
It  comes  from  Africa,  ancient  nurse  of  monsters, — from  Guinea,  Daho 
mey,  and  Congo.  There  is  its  origin  and  fountain.  This  benighted 
region,  we  are  told  by  Chief-Justice  Marshall  in  a  memorable  judgment, 
still  asserts  a  right,  discarded  by  Christendom,  to  enslave  captives  taken 
in  war  ;  and  this  African  Barbarism  is  the  beginning  of  American  Slavery. 
The  Supreme  Court  of  Georgia,  a  Slave  State,  has  not  shrunk  from  this 
conclusion.  "  Licensed  to  hold  slave  property,"  says  the  Court,  "  the 
Georgia  planter  held  the  slave  as  a  chattel,  either  directly  from  the  slave 
trader  or  from  those  who  held  under  him,  and  he  from  the  slave-captor 
in  Africa.  The  property  of  the  planter  in  the  slave  became  thus  the  pro 
perty  of  the  original  captor."  it  is  natural  that  a  right  thus  derived  in 
defiance  of  Christendom,  and  openly  founded  on  the  most  vulgar 
Paganism,  should  be  exercised  without  mitigating  influence  from  Chris 
tianity, — that  the  master's  authority  over  the  person  of  his  slave,  over 
his  conjugal  relations,  over  his  parental  relations,  over  the  employment 


326  HOME  OF  THE  SLAVE  CODE. 

of  his  lime,  over  all  his  acquisitions,  should  be  recognized,  while  no 
generous  presumption  inclines  to  Freedom,  and  the  womb  of  the  bond 
woman  can  deliver  only  a  slave. 


xv. 


From  its  home  in  Africa,  where  it  is  sustained  by  immemorial  usage, 
this  Barbarism,  thus  derived  and  thus  developed,  traversed  the  ocean 
to  American  soil.  It  entered  on  board  that  fatal  slave-ship, 

"Built  in  the  eclipse,  and  rigged  with  curses  dark," 

which  in  1620  landed  its  cruel  cargo  at  Jamestown,  in  Virginia  ;  and  it 
has  boldly  taken  its  place  in  every  succeeding  slave-ship,  from  that 
early  day  till  now, — helping  to  pack  the  human  freight,  regardless  of 
human  agony,  — surviving  the  torments  of  the  middle  passage, — survi 
ving  its  countless  victims  plunged  beneath  the  waves  ;  and  it  has  left 
the  slave-ship  only  to  travel  inseparable  from  the  slave  in  his  various 
doom,  sanctioning  by  its  barbarous  code  every  outrage,  whether  of  may 
hem  or  robbery,  lash  or  lust,  and  fastening  itself  upon  his  offspring  to 
the  remotest  generation.  Thus  are  barbarous  prerogatives  of  barbar 
ous  half-naked  African  chiefs  perpetuated  in  American  Slave-Masters, 
while  the  Senator  from  Virginia  [Mr.  MASON],  perhaps  unconscious  of 
their  origin,  perhaps  desirous  to  secure  for  them  the  appearance  of  a 
less  barbarous  pedigree,  tricks  them  out  with  a  phrase  of  the  Roman 
Law,  discarded  by  the  Common  Law,  which  simply  renders  into  ancient 
Latin  an  existing  rule  of  African  Barbarism,  recognized  as  an  existing 
rule  of  American  Slavery. 

Such  is  the  plain  juridical  origin  of  the  American  slave  code,  now 
vaunted  as  a  badge  of  Civilization.  Bnt  all  law,  whatever  its  juridical 
origin,  whether  Christian  or  Mohammedan,  Roman  or  African,  may  be 
traced  to  other  and  ampler  influences  in  Nature,  sometimes  of  Right 
and  sometimes  of  Wrong.  Surely  the  law  which  stamped  the  slave- 
trade  as  piracy  punishable  with  death  had  a  different  inspiration  from 
that  other  law  which  secured  immunity  for  the  slave-trade  throughout 
an  immense  territory,  and  invested  its  supporters  with  political  power. 
As  there  is  a  nobler  law  above,  so  there  is  a  meaner  law  below,  and 
each  is  felt  in  human  affairs. 

Thus  far  we  have  seen  Slavery  only  in  pretended  law,  and  in  the 
origin  of  that  law.  Here  I  might  stop,  without  proceeding  in  the  argu- 


PRACTICAL   RESULT   OF   SLAVERY.  327 

nient ;  for  on  the  letter  of  the  law  alone  must  Slavery  be  condemned. 
But  the  tree  is  known  by  its  fruits,  which  I  shall  now  exhibit  :  and  this 
brings  me  the  second  stage  of  the  argument. 


XVI. 

(2.)  In  considering  the  practical  result  of  Slavery,  the  materials  are  so 
obvious  and  diversified  that  my  chief  care  will  be  to  abridge  and  reject : 
and  here  I  put  the  Slave  States  and  Free  States  face  to  face,  showing 
at  each  point  the  blasting  influence  of  Slavery. 

Before  proceeding  vvith  these  details,  I  would  for  one  moment  expose 
that  degradation  of  free  labor,  which  is  one  of  the  general  results.  Where 
there  are  slaves,  whose  office  is  work,  it  is  held  disreputable  for  a  white 
man  to  soil  his  skin  or  harden  his  hands  with  honest  toil.  The  Slave- 
Master  of  course  declines  work,  and  his  pernicious  example  infects  all 
others.  With  impious  resolve,  they  would  reverse  the  Almighty  decree 
appojnting  labor  as  the  duty  of  man,  and  declaring  that  in  the  sweat  of 
his  face  shall  he  eat  his  bread.  The  Slave-Master  says,  "  No  !  this  is 
true  of  the  slave,  of  the  black  man,  but  not  of  the  white  man  :  he  shall 
not  eat  his  bread  in  the  sweat  of  his  face."  Thus  is  the  brand  of  degra 
dation  stamped  upon  that  daily  toil  which  contributes  so  much  to  a  true 
Civilization.  It  is  a  constant  boast  in  the  Slave  States,  that  white  men 
there  will  not  perform  work  performed  in  the  Free  States.  Mr.  Cal- 
houn  and  Mr.  Waddy  Thompson  made  this  boast.  Let  it  be  borne  in 
mind,  then,  that,  where  Slavery  prevails,  there  is  not  only  despair  for 
the  black  man,  but  inequality  and  ignominy  for  the  white  laborer.  By 
necessary  consequence,  the  latter,  whether  emigrating  from  our  Free 
States  or  fleeing  from  oppression  and  wretchedness  in  his  European 
home,  avoids  a  region  disabled  by  such  a  social  law.  Hence  a  twofold 
injustice  :  practically  he  is  excluded  from  the  land,  while  the  land  itself 
becomes  a  prey  to  that  paralysis  which  is  caused  by  a  violation  of  the 
laws  of  God.  And  now  for  the  testimony. 

The  States  where  this  Barbarism  exists  excel  the  Free  States  in  all 
natural  advantages.  Their  territory  is  more  extensive,  stretching  over 
851,448  square  miles,  while  the  Free  States,  including  California,  em 
brace  only  612,597  square  miles.  Here  is  a  difference  of  more  than 
238,000  square  miles  in  favor  of  the  Slave  States,  showing  that  Freedom 
starts  in  this  great  rivalry  with  a  field  more  than  a  quarter  less  than  that 
of  Slavery.  In  happiness  of  climate,  adapted  to  productions  of  special 


328  THE   HARPY   DEFILES   THE   BANQUET. 

value, — in  exhaustless  motive  power  distributed  throughout  its  space, — 
in  natural  highways,  by  more  than  fifty  navigable  rivers,  never  closed 
by  the  rigors  of  winter, — and  in  a  stretch  of  coast,  along  Ocean  and 
Gulf,  indented  by  hospitable  harbors, — the  whole  presenting  incompar 
able  advantages  for  that  true  Civilization,  where  agriculture,  manufac 
tures,  and  commerce,  both  domestic  and  foreign,  blend, — in  all  these 
respects  the  Slave  States  excel  the  Free  States,  whose  climate  is  often 
churlish,  whose  motive  power  is  less  various,  whose  navigable  rivers  are 
fewer  and  often  sealed  by  ice,  and  whose  coast,  while  less  in  extent  and 
with  fewer  harbors,  is  often  perilous  from  storm  and  cold. 


XVII. 

But  Slavery  plays  the  part  of  a  Harpy,  and  denies  the  choicest 
banquet.  See  what  it  does  with  this  territory,  thus  spacious  and  fair. 

An  important  indication  of  prosperity  is  in  the  growth  of  population. 
In  this  respect  the  two  regions  started  equal.  In  1790,  at  the  first 
census  under  the  Constitution,  the  population  of  the  present  Slave 
States  was  1,961,372,  of  the  present  Free  States  1,968,455,  showing  a 
difference  of  only  7,083  in  favor  of  the  Free  States.  This  difference,  at 
first  merely  nominal,  has  been  constantly  increasing  since,  showing 
itself  more  strongly  in  each  decennial  census,  until,  in  1850,  the  pop 
ulation  of  the  Slave  States  swollen  by  the  annexation  of  three  foreign 
Territories,  Louisiana,  Florida,  and  Texas,  was  only  9,612,969,  while 
that  of  the  Free  States,  without  such  large  annexations,  reached 
13,434,922,  showing  a  difference  of  3,821,953  in  favor  of  Freedom. 
But  this  difference  becomes  still  more  remarkable,  if  we  confine  our 
inquiries  to  the  white  population,  which  at  this  period  was  only 
6,184,477  m  tne  Slave  States,  while  it  was  13,238,670  in  the  Free 
States,  showing  a  difference  of  7,054,193  in  favor  of  Freedom,  and 
showing  also  that  the  white  population  of  the  Free  States  had  not  only 
doubled,  but,  while  occupying  a  smaller  territory,  commenced  to  triple, 
that  of  the  Slave  States.  The  comparative  sparseness  of  the  two  pop 
ulations  furnishes  another  illustration.  In  the  Slave  States  the  average 
number  of  inhabitants  to  a  square  mile  was  11.29,  while  in  the  Free 
States,  it  was  21.93  or  almost  two  to  one  in  favor  of  Freedom. 

These  results  are  general ;  but  if  we  take  any  particular  Slave  State, 
and  compare  it  with  a  Free  State,  we  shall  find  the  same  marked 
evidence  for  Freedom.  Take  Virginia,  with  a  territory  of  61,352  square 


SLAVE   AND   FREE   STATES   CONTRASTED.  329 

miles,  and  New  York,  with  a  territory  of  47,000,  or  over  14,000  square 
miles  less  than  her  sister  State.  New  York  has  one  seaport,  Virginia 
some  three  or  four ;  New  York  has  one  noble  river,  Virginia  has 
several ;  New  York  for  400  miles  runs  along  the  frozen  line  of  Canada, 
Virginia  basks  in  a  climate  of  constant  felicity.  But  Freedom  is  better 
than  climate,  river,  or  seaport.  In  1790  the  population  of  Virginia  was 
748,308,  and  in  1850  it  was  1,421,661.  In  1790  the  population  of  New 
York  was  340,120,  and  in  1850  it  was  3,097,394.  That  of  Virginia  had 
not  doubled  in  sixty  years,  while  that  of  New  York  had  multiplied  more 
than  ninefold.  A  similar  comparison  may  be  made  between  Ken 
tucky,  with  37,680  squares  miles,  admitted  into  the  Union  as  long  ago 
as  1792,  and  Ohio,  with  39,964  square  miles,  admitted  into  the  Union  in 
1802.  In  1850,  the  Slave  State  had  a  population  of  only  982,405, 
while  Ohio  had  a  population  of  1,980,329,  showing  a  difference  of  nearly 
a  million  in  favor  of  Freedom. 


XVIII. 

As  in  population,  so  also  in  the  value  of  property,  real  and  personal, 
do  the  Free  States  excel  the  Slave  States.  According  to  the  census  of 
1850,  the  value  of  property  in  the  Free  States  was  $4,102,162,098, 
while  in  the  Slave  States  it  was  $2,936,090,737;  or,  if  we  deduct  the 
asserted  property  in  human  flesh,  only  $1,655,945,137, — showing  an 
enormous  difference  of  billions  in  favor  of  Freedom.  In  the  Free 
States  the  valuation  per  acre  was  $10.46,  in  the  Slave  States  only  $3.04. 
This  disproportion  was  still  greater  in  1855,  when,  according  to  the 
Report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  the  valuation  of  the  Free  States 
was  $5,770,197,679,  or  $14.71  per  acre;  and  of  the  Slave  States,  $3,- 
977,354,046,  or,  if  we  deduct  the  asserted  property  in  human  flesh,  $2,- 
505,186,446,  or  $4.59  per  acre.  Thus  in  five  years  from  1850  the  valu 
ation  of  property  in  the  Free  States  received  an  increase  of  more  than 
the  whole  accumulated  valuation  of  the  Slave  States  in  1850. 

Looking  at  details,  we  find  the  same  disproportions.  Arkansas  and 
Michigan,  nearly  equal  in  territory,  were  organized  as  States  by  simul 
taneous  Acts  of  Congress  ;  and  yet  in  1855  tne  whole  valuation  of  Ar 
kansas,  including  its  asserted  property  in  human  flesh,  was  only  $64,- 
240,726,  while  that  of  Michigan,  without  a  single  slave,  was  $116,593,- 
580.  The  whole  accumulated  valuation  of  all  the  Slave  States,  deduct 
ing  the  asserted  property  in  human  flesh,  in  1850,  was  only  $1,655,945,- 


330  AGRICULTURE — MINING — MECHANICS. 

137  ;  but  the  valuation  of  New  York  alone,  in  1855,  reached  the  nearly 
equal  sum  of  $1,401,285,279.  The  valuation  of  Virginia,  South  Caro 
lina,  Georgia,  Florida,  and  Texas,  altogether,  in  1850,  deducting  human 
flesh,  was  $559,224,920,  or  simply  $1.96  per  acre, — being  less  than  that 
of  Massachusetts  alone,  which  was  $573,342,286,  or  $114.85  per  acre. 


XIX. 

The  Slave  States  boast  of  agriculture  ;  but  here  again,  notwithstand 
ing  superior  natural  advantages,  they  must  yield  to  the  Free  States  at 
every  point, — in  the  number  of  farms  and  plantations,  in  the  number  of 
acres  improved,  in  the  cash  value  of  farms,  in  the  average  value  per 
acre,  and  in  the  value  of  farming  implements  and  machinery.  Here  is 
a  short  table. 

Free  States.  Slave  States. 

Number  of  farms 873,608  569,201 

Acres  of  improved  land 57,720,494  54,970,327 

Cash  value  of  farms $2,147,218,478  $1,117,649,649 

Average  value  per  acre $19.17  $6.18 

Value  of  farming  implements $85,840,141  $65,345,625 

Such  is  the  mighty  contrast.  But  it  does  not  stop  here.  Careful 
tables  place  the  agricultural  products  of  the  Free  States,  for  the  year 
ending  June,  1850,  at  $888,634,334,  while  those  of  the  Slave  States  were 
$631,277,417  ;  the  product  per  acre  in  the  Free  States  at  $7.94,  and  the 
product  per  acre  in  the  Slave  States  at  $3.49 ;  the  average  product  of  each 
agriculturist  in  the  Free  States  at  $342,  and  in  the  Slave  States  at  $171. 
Thus  the  Free  States,  with  a  smaller  population  engaged  in  agriculture 
than  the  Slave  States,  and  with  smaller  territory,  show  an  annual  sum 
total  of  agricultural  products  surpassing  those  of  the  Slave  States  by  two 
hundred  and  twenty-seven  millions  of  dollars,  while  twice  as  much  is 
produced  by  each  agriculturist,  and  more  than  twice  as  much  is  pro 
duced  on  an  acre.  The  monopoly  of  cotton,  rice,  and  cane-sugar,  with 
a  climate  granting  two  and  sometimes  three  crops  in  the  year,  is  thus 
impotent  in  competition  with  Freedom. 


xx. 

In    manufactures,  mining,  and  the  mechanic  arts  the   failure  of  the 
Slave  States  is  greater  still.     It  appears  at  all  points, — in  the  capital 


DOMESTIC    AND    FOREIGN    COMMERCE.  331 

employed,  in  the  value  of  the  raw  material,  in  the  annual  wages,  and  in 
the  annual  product.     A  short  table  will  show  the  contrast. 

Free  States.  Slave  States. 

Capital $430,240,051  $95,029,877 

Value  of  raw  material 465,844,092  86, 190,639 

Annual  wages I95»436»453  33»247»56° 

Annual  product 842,586,058  165,423,027 

This  might  be  illustrated  by  details  with  regard  to  different  manufac 
tures, — as  shoes,  cotton,  woollens,  pig  iron,  wrought  iron,  and  iron  cast 
ings, — all  showing  the  contrast.  It  might  also  be  illustrated  by  com 
parison  between  different  States, — showing  for  instance,  that  the 
manufactures  of  Massachusetts  during  the  last  year,  exceeded  those  of 
all  the  Slave  States  combined. 

In  commerce  the  failure  of  the  Slave  States  is  on  a  yet  larger  scale. 
Under  this  head  the  census  does  not  supply  proper  statistics,  and  we 
are  left  to  approximations  from  other  sources  ;  but  these  are  enough 
for  our  purpose.  It  appears,  that,  of  products  which  enter  into 
commerce,  the  Free  States  had  an  amount  valued  at  $1,377,199,968, 
the  Slave  States  an  amount  valued  only  at  $410,754,992  ;  that,  of 
persons  engaged  in  trade,  the  Free  States  had  136,856,  and  the  Slave 
States  52,662;  and  that,  of  tonnage  employed,  the  Free  State  had 
2,791,096  tons,  and  the  Slaves  States  only  726,284.  This  was  in  1850. 
But  in  1855  the  disproportion  was  still  greater,  the  Free  States  having 
4,320,768  tons,  and  the  Slave  States  855,510  tons,  being  a  difference  of 
five  to  one, — and  the  tonnage  of  Massachusetts  alone  being  979,210 
tons,  an  amount  larger  than  that  of  all  the  Slave  States  together.  The 
tonnage  built  during  this  year  by  the  Free  States  was  528,844  tons,  by 
the  Slave  States  52,938  tons.  Maine  alone  built  215,905  tons,  or  more 
than  four  times  the  whole  built  in  the  Slave  States. 

The  foreign  commerce  of  the  Free  States,  in  1855,  as  indicated  by 
exports  and  imports,  was  $404,365,503  ;  of  the  Slave  States,  $132,062,- 
196.  The  exports  of  the  Free  States  were  $167,520,693;  of  the  Slave 
States,  including  the  vaunted  cotton  crop,  $107,475,668.  The  imports 
of  the  Free  States  were  $236,844,810  ;  of  the  Slave  States,  $24,586,- 
528.  The  foreign  commerce  of  New  York  alone  was  more  than  twice 
as  large  as  that  of  all  the  Slave  States ;  her  imports  were  larger,  and  her 
exports  were  larger  also.  Add  to  this  evidence  of  figures  the  testimony 
of  a  Virginian,  Mr.  Loudon,  in  a  letter  written  just  before  the  sitting  of 
a  Southern  Commercial  Convention.  Thus  he  complains  and  testi 
fies  :— 


332  RAILROADS — POST-OFFICES — CHARITY. 

"There  are  not  half  a  dozen  vessels  engaged  in  our  own  trade  that 
are  owned  in  Virginia ;  and  I  have  been  unable  to  find  a  vessel  at  Liv 
erpool  loading  for  Virginia  within  three  years,  during  the  height  of  our 
busy  season." 

XXI. 

Railroads  and  canals  are  the  avenues  of  commerce  ;  and  here  again 
the  Free  States  excel.  Of  railroads  in  operation  in  1854,  there  were 
13,105  miles  in  the  Free  States,  and  4,212  in  the  Slave  States.  Of 
canals  there  were  3,682  miles  in  the  Free  States,  and  1,116  in  the  Slave 
States. 

The  Post-Office,  which  is  the  agent  not  only  of  commerce,  but  of  civ 
ilization,  joins  in  the  uniform  testimony.  According  to  the  tables  for 
1859,  tne  postage  collected  in  the  Free  States  was  $5,581,749,  and  the 
expense  of  carrying  the  mails  $6,945,545,  leaving  a  deficit  of  $1,363,- 
796.  In  the  Slave  States  the  amount  collected  was  only  $1,936,167, 
and  the  expense  of  carrying  the  mails  $5,947,076,  leaving  the  enormous 
deficit  of  $4,010,909, — the  difference  between  the  two  deficits  being 
$2,647,113.  The  Slave  States  did  not  pay  one-third  of  the  expense  in 
transporting  their  own  mails ;  and  not  a  single  Slave  State  paid  for 
transporting  its  own  mails,  not  even  the  small  State  of  Delaware.  Mas 
sachusetts,  besides  paying  for  hers,  had  a  surplus  larger  by  one-half 
than  the  whole  amount  collected  in  South  Carolina. 

According  to  the  census  of  1850,  the  value  of  churches  in  the  Free 
States  was  $66,177,586;  in  the  Slave  States  $20,683,265. 

The  voluntary  charity  contributed  in  1855,  for  certain  leading  pur 
poses  of  Christian  benevolence,  was,  in  the  Free  States,  $955,511  ;  for 
the  same  purpose  in  the  Slave  States,  $193,885.  For  the  Bible  cause 
the  Free  States  contributed  $321,365;  the  Slave  States,  $67,226. 
For  the  Missionary  cause  the  former  contributed  $502,174;  and  the 
latter,  $101,934.  For  the  Tract  Society  the  former  contributed 
$131,972  ;  and  the  latter,  $24,725.  The  amount  contributed  for 
Missions  by  Massachusetts  was  greater  than  that  contributed  by  all  the 
Slave  States,  and  more  than  eight  times  that  contributed  by  South 
Carolina. 

Nor  have  the  Free  States  been  backward  in  charity  for  the  benefit  of 
the  Slave  States.  The  records  of  Massachusetts  show  that  as  long  ago 
as  1781,  at  the  beginning  of  the  Government,  there  was  a  contribution 
throughout  the  Commonwealth,  under  the  particular  direction  of  that 
eminent  patriot,  Samuel  Adams,  for  the  relief  of  inhabitants  of  South 


EDUCATIONAL   ESTABLISHMENTS.  333 

Carolina  and  Georgia.  In  1855  we  were  saddened  by  the  prevalence 
of  yellow  fever  in  Portsmouth,  Virginia  ;  and  now,  from  a  report  of  the 
Relief  Commitee  of  that  place,  we  learn  that  the  amount  of  charity  con 
tributed  by  the  Slave  States  exclusive  of  Virginia,  the  afflicted  State, 
was  $12,182  ;  and  including  Virginia,  it  was  $33,398  ;  while  $42,547  was 
contributed  by  the  Free  States. 

XXII. 

In  all  this  array  we  see  the  fatal  influence  of  Slavery.  But  its  Bar 
barism  is  yet  more  conspicuous,  when  we  consider  its  Educational  Es 
tablishments,  and  the  unhappy  results  naturally  ensuing  from  their  im 
perfect  character. 

Of  colleges,  in  1856,  the  Free  States  had  61,  and  the  Slave  States  59 ; 
but  the  comparative  efficacy  of  the  institutions  assuming  this  name  may 
be  measured  by  certain  facts.  The  number  of  graduates  in  the  PYee 
States  was  47,752,  in  the  Slave  States  19,648;  the  number  of  ministers 
educated  in  Slave  colleges  was  747,  in  Free  colleges  10,702  ;  and  the 
number  of  volumes  in  the  libraries  of  Slave  colleges  308,011,  in  the 
libraries  of  Free  colleges  668,497.  If  materials  were  at  hand  for  com 
parison  between  these  colleges,  in  buildings,  cabinets,  and  scientific 
apparatus,  or  in  standard  of  scholarship,  the  difference  would  be  still 
more  apparent. 

Of  professional  schools,  teaching  law,  medicine,  and  theology,  the 
Free  States  had  65,  with  269  professors,  4,417  students,  and  175,951 
volumes  in  their  libraries ;  while  the  Slave  States  had  only  32  profes 
sional  schools,  with  122  professors,  1,816  students,  and  30,796  volumes 
in  their  libraries.  The  whole  number  educated  at  these  institutions  in 
the  Free  States  was  23,513,  in  the  Slave  States,  3,812.  Of  these,  the 
largest  number  in  the  Slave  States  study  medicine,  next  theology,  and 
lastly  law.  According  to  the  census,  there  are  only  808  students  in  the 
Slave  theological  schools,  and  747  studying  for  the  ministry  in  Slave 
colleges  ;  and  this  is  the  education  of  the  Slave  clergy.  In  the  law 
schools  of  the  Slave  States  the  number  ofstudents  is  only  240,  this  being 
the  sum-total  of  public  students  in  the  land  of  Slavery  devoted  to  that 
profession  which  is  the  favorite  stepping-stone  to  political  life,  where 
Slave-Masters  claim  such  a  disproportion  of  office  and  honor. 

Of  academies  and  private  schools,  in  1850,  the  Free  States,  not 
withstanding  multitudinous  public  schools,  had  3,197,  with  7,175 
teachers,  154,893  pupils,  and  an  annual  income  of  $2.457,372  ;  the 


334  IN  SYSTEMS   OF   COMMON   SCHOOLS. 

Slave  States  had  2,797  academies  and  private  schools,  with  4,913 
teachers,  104,976  pupils,  and  an  annual  income  of  $2,079,724. 
In  the  absence  of  public  schools,  to  a  large  extent,  where  Slavery 
exists,  the  dependence  must  be  upon  private  schools ;  and  yet 
even  here  the  Slave  States  fall  below  the  Free  States,  whether  we  con 
sider  the  number  of  schools,  the  number  of  pupils,  the  number  of 
teachers,  or  the  amount  paid  for  their  support. 


XXIIL 

In  public  schools,  open  to  all,  poor  and  rich  alike,  the  preeminence 
of  the  Free  States  is  complete.  Here  the  figures  show  a  difference  as 
wide  as  that  between  Freedom  and  Slavery.  Their  number  in  the 
Free  States  is  62,433,  w^tn  72,621  teachers,  and  with  2,769.901  pupils, 
supported  at  an  annual  expense  of  $6,780,337.  Their  number  in  the 
Slave  States  is  18,507,  with  19,307  teachers,  and  with  581,861  pupils, 
supported  at  an  annual  expense  of  $2,719,534.  This  difference  may  be 
illustrated  by  details.  Virginia,  an  old  State,  and  more  than  a  third  larger 
than  Ohio,  has  67,353  pupils  in  her  public  schools,  while  the  latter  State  has 
484, 153.  Arkansas,  equal  in  age  and  size  with  Michigan,  has  only  8,493 
pupils  at  her  public  schools,  while  the  latter  State  has  110,455.  South 
Carolina,  nearly  four  times  as  large  as  Massachusetts,  has  17,838  pupils 
at  public  schools,  while  the  latter  State  has  176,475.  South  Carolina 
spends  for  this  purpose,  annually,  $200,600  ;  Massachusetts,  $1,006,- 
795.  Baltimore,  with  a  population  of  169,054,  on  the  Northern  verge 
of  Slavery,  has  school  buildings  valued  at  $105,729;  Boston,  with  a 
population  of  136,881,  has  school  buildings  valued  at  $729,502.  Balti 
more  has  only  37  public  schools,  with  138  teachers,  and  8, on  pupils, 
supported  at  an  annual  expense  of  $32,423  ;  Boston  has  203  public 
schools,  with  353  teachers,  and  20,369  pupils,  supported  at  an  annual 
expense  of  $237,100.  Even  these  figures  do  not  disclose  the  whole 
difference ;  for  there  exist  in  the  Free  States  teachers'  institutes,  nor 
mal  schools,  lyceums,  and  public  courses  of  lectures,  unknown  in  the 
region  of  Slavery.  These  advantages  are  enjoyed  by  the  children  of 
colored  persons ;  and  here  is  a  comparison  which  shows  the  degrada 
tion  of  the  Slave  States.  It  is  their  habit  particularly  to  deride  free 
colored  persons.  See,  now,  with  what  cause.  The  number  of  colored 
persons  in  the  Free  States  is  196,016,  of  whom  22,043,  or  more  than 
one-ninth,  attend  school,  which  is  a  larger  proportion  than  is  supplied 


PUBLIC   LIBRARIES.  335 

by  the  whites  of  the  Slave  States.  In  Massachusetts  there  are  9,064 
colored  persons,  of  whom  1,439,  or  "early  one-sixth,  attend  school, 
which  is  a  much  larger  proportion  than  is  supplied  by  the  whites  of  South 
Carolina. 

Among  educational  establishments  are  public  libraries ;  and  here, 
again,  the  Free  States  have  their  customary  eminence,  whether  we  con 
sider  libraries  strictly  called  public,  or  libraries  of  the  common  school, 
Sunday-school,  college,  and  church.  The  disclosures  are  startling. 
The  number  of  libraries  in  the  Free  States  is  14,893,  and  the  sum-total 
of  volumes  is  3,883,617;  the  number  of  libraries  in  the  Slave  States 
is  713,  and  the  sum-total  of  volumes  is  654,194  :  showing  an  excess 
for  Freedom  of  more  than  fourteen  thousand  libraries,  and  more  than 
three  millions  of  volumes.  In  the  Free  States  the  common-school 
libraries  are  11,881,  and  contain  1,589,683  volumes;  in  the  Slave 
States  they  are  186,  and  contain  57,721  volumes.  In  the  Free  States 
the  Sunday-school  libraries  are  1,713,  and  contain  474,241  volumes  ;  in 
the  Slave  States  they  are  275,  and  contain  68,080  volumes.  In  the 
Free  States  the  college  libraries  are  132,  and  contain  660,573  volumes  ; 
in  the  Slave  States  they  are  79,  and  contain  249,248  volumes.  In  the 
Free  States  the  church  libraries  are  109,  and  contain  52,723  volumes  ; 
in  the  Slave  States  they  are  21,  and  contain  5,627  volumes.  In  the 
Free  States  the  libraries  strictly  called  public,  and  not  included  under 
heads  already  enumerated,  are  1,058,  and  contain  1,106,397  volumes  ; 
those  of  the  Slave  States  are  152,  and  contain  273,518  volumes. 

Turn  these  figures  over,  look  at  them  in  any  light,  and  the  conclusion 
is  irresistible  for  Freedom.  The  college  libraries  alone  of  the  Free 
States  are  greater  than  all  the  libraries  of  Slavery ;  so,  also,  are  the 
libraries  of  Massachusetts  alone  greater  than  all  the  libraries  of  Slavery; 
and  the  common-school  libraries  alone  of  New  York  are  more  than 
twice  as  large  as  all  the  libraries  of  Slavery.  Michigan  has  107,943 
volumes  in  her  libraries  ;  Arkansas  has  420  ;  and  yet  the  Acts  for  the 
admission  of  these  two  States  into  the  Union  were  passed  on  the  same 
day. 

,    XXIV. 

Among  educational  establishments,  one  of  the  most  efficient  is  the 
press  ;  and  here  again  all  things  testify  for  Freedom.  The  Free  States 
excel  in  the  number  of  newspapers  and  periodicals  published,  whether 
daily,  semi-weekly,  weekly,  semi-monthly,  monthly,  or  quarterly, — and 


336  THE   PRESS— PRINTERS — PUBLISHERS. 

whatever  their  character,  whether  literary,  neutral,  political,  religious, 
or  scientific.  The  whole  aggregate  circulation  in  the  Free  States  is 
334,146,281,  in  the  Slave  States  81,038,693  ;  in  Free  Michigan  3,247,- 
736,  in  Slave  Arkansas  377,000  ;  in  Free  Ohio  30,473,407,  in  Slave 
Kentucky  6,582,838;  in  Slave  South  Carolina  7,145,930,  in  Free  Mas 
sachusetts  64,820,564, — a  larger  number  than  in  the  twelve  Slave  States, 
Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Geor 
gia,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Florida,  Louisiana,  Arkansas,  and  Texas, 
combined.  This  enormous  disproportion  in  the  aggregate  is  also  pre 
served  in  the  details.  In  the  Slave  States  political  newspapers  find 
more  favor  than  all  others  together ;  but  even  of  these  they  publish 
only  47,243,209  copies,  while  the  Free  States  publish  163,583,668. 
Numerous  as  are  political  newspapers  in  the  Free  States,  they  form 
considerably  less  than  one-half  the  aggregate  circulation  of  the  Press, 
while  in  the  Slave  States  they  constitute  nearly  three-fifths.  Of  neutral 
newspapers  the  Slave  States  publish  8,812,620,  the  Free  States  79,156,- 
733.  Of  religious  newspapers  the  Slave  States  publish  4,364,832,  the 
Free  States  29,280,652.  Of  literary  journals  the  Slave  States  publish 
20,245,360,  the  Free  States  57,478,768.  And  of  scientific  journals  the 
Slave  States  publish  372,672,  the  Free  States  4,521,260.  Of  these  last 
the  number  of  copi-  published  in  Massachusetts  alone  is  2,033,260, — 
more  than  five  times  the  number  in  the  whole  land  of  Slavery.  Thus, 
in  contributions  to  science,  literature,  religion,  and  even  politics,  as 
attested  by  the  activity  of  the  periodical  press,  do  the  Slave  States 
miserably  fail, — while  darkness  gathers  over  them,  increasing  with  time. 
According  to  the  census  of  1810,  the  disproportion  in  this  respect  be 
tween  the  two  regions  was  only  as  two  to  one ;  it  is  now  more  than  four 
to  one,  and  is  still  darkening. 

The  same  disproportion  appears  with  regard  to  persons  connected 
with  the  Press.  In  the  Free  States  the  number  of  printers  was  11,812, 
of  whom  1,229  were  m  Massachusetts  ;  in  the  Slaves  States  there  were 
2,625,  °f  whom  South  Carolina  had  only  141.  In  the  Free  States  the 
number  of  publishers  was  331 ;  in  the  Slave  States,  24.  Of  these, 
Massachusetts  had  51,  or  more  than  twice  as  many  as  all  the  Slave 
States ;  while  South  Carolina  had  but  one.  In  the  Free  States  the 
authors  were  73  ;  in  the  Slave  States,  6, — Massachusetts  having  17,  and 
South  Carolina  none.  These  suggestive  illustrations  are  all  derived 
from  the  last  official  census.  If  we  go  to  other  sources,  the  contrast  is 
still  the  same.  Of  the  authors  mentioned  in  Duyckinck's  "  Cyclo 
pedia  of  American  Literature,"  434  are  of  the  Free  States,  and  only  90 


AUTHORS — PATENTS — EMIGRATION.  337 

ot  the  Slave  States.  Of  the  poets  mentioned  in  Griswold's  "  Poets  and 
Poetry  of  America,"  122  are  of  the  Free  States,  and  only  16  of  the 
Slave  States.  Of  the  poets  whose  place  of  birth  appears  in  Read's 
"  Female  Poets  of  America,"  71  are  of  the  Free  States,  and  only  n  of 
the  Slave  States.  If  we  try  authors  by  weight  or  quality,  it  is  the 
same  as  when  we  try  them  by  numbers.  Out  of  the  Free  States  come  all 
whose  works  have  a  place  in  the  permanent  literature  of  the  country, 
— Irving,  Prescott,  Sparks,  Bancroft,  Emerson,  Motley,  Hildreth,  Haw 
thorne  ;  also.  Bryant,  Longfellow,  Dana,  Halleck,  Whittier,  Lowell, — 
and  I  might  add  indefinitely  to  the  list.  But  what  name  from  the  Slave 
States  can  find  entrance  there  ? 

A  similar  disproportion  appears  in  the  number  of  Patents,  during  the 
last  three  years,  1857,  1858,  and  1859,  attesting  the  inventive  industry 
of  the  contrasted  regions.  In  the  Free  States  there  were  9,557;  in  the 
Slave  States,  1,306  :  making  a  difference  of  8,251  in  favor  of  Freedom. 
The  number  in  Free  Massachusetts  was  1,351  ;  in  Slave  South  Carolina, 
39.  The  number  in  Free  Connecticut,  small  in  territory  and  population, 
was  628  ;  in  Slave  Virginia,  large  in  territory  and  population,  184. 

From  these  things  we  might  infer  the  ignorance  prevalent  in  the 
Slave  States  ;  but  this  shows  itself  in  specific  results  of  a  deplorable 
character,  authenticated  by  the  official  census.  In  the  Slave  States 
there  were  493,026  native  white  adults,  persons  over  twenty  years  of 
age,  unable  to  read  and  write  ;  while  in  the  Free  States,  with  double 
the  native  white  population,  there  were  but  248,725  persons  of  this 
class  in  this  unhappy  predicament :  in  the  Slave  States  the  proportion  be 
ing  i  in  5  of  the  adult  native  whites  ;  in  the  Free  States  i  in  22.  The 
number  in  Free  Massachusetts,  in  an  adult  native  white  population  of 
47°?375>  was  1,055,  or  I  m  446  ;  the  number  in  Slave  South  Carolina, 
in  a  like  population  of  only  120,136,  was  15,580,  or  i  in  8.  The  num 
ber  in  Free  Connecticut  was  i  in  256,  in  Slave  Virginia  i  in  5 ;  in  Free 
New  Hampshire  i  in  192,  and  in  Slave  North  Carolina  i  in  3. 

XXV. 

Before  leaving  this  picture,  where  the  dismal  colors  all  come  from 
official  sources,  there  are  two  other  aspects  in  which  Slavery  may  be 
regarded. 

i.  The  first  is  its  influence  on  emigration.  The  official  compendium 
of  the  census  (page  115)  tells  us  that  inhabitants  of  Slave  States 
who  are  natives  of  Free  States  are  more  numerous  than  inhabi- 

22 


338  LIFE-GIVING  POWER   OF  FREEDOM. 

tants  of  Free  States  who  are  natives  of  Slave  States.  This  is 
an  egregious  error.  Just  the  contrary  is  true.  The  census  of  1850 
found  606,139  in  the  Free  States  who  were  born  in  the  Slave  States, 
while  only  206,624  born  in  the  Free  States  were  in  the  Slave  States. 
And  since  the  white  population  of  the  Free  States  is  double  that  of 
the  Slave  States,  it  appears  that  the  proportion  of  whites  moving  from 
Slavery  is  six  times  greater  than  that  of  whites  moving  into  Sl-avery. 
This  simple  fact  discloses  something  of  the  aversion  to  Slavery  which 
is  aroused  even  in  the  Slave  States. 

2.  The  second  is  furnished  by  the  character  of  the  region  on  the 
border-line  between  Freedom  and  Slavery.  In  general,  the  value  of 
land  in  Slave  States  adjoining  Freedom  is  advanced,  while  the  value  of 
corresponding  lands  in  Free  States  is  diminished.  The  effects  of  Free 
dom  and  Slavery  are  reciprocal.  Slavery  is  a  bad  neighbor  ;  Freedom 
is  a  good  neighbor.  In  Virginia,  lands  naturally  poor  are,  by  nearness 
to  Freedom,  worth  $12.98  an  acre,  while  richer  lands  in  other  parts  of 
the  State  are  worth  only  $8.42.  In  Illinois,  lands  bordering  on  Slavery 
are  worth  only  $4.54  an  acre,  while  other  lands  in  Illinois  are 
worth  $8.05.  As  in  the  value  of  lands,  so  in  all  other  influences  is 
Slavery  felt  for  evil,  and  Freedom  felt  for  good  ;  and  thus  is  it  clearly 
shown  to  be  for  the  interest  of  the  Slave  States  to  be  surrounded  by  a 
circle  of  Free  States. 

At  every  point  is  the  character  of  Slavery  more  and  more  manifest, 
rising  and  dilating  into  an  overshadowing  Barbarism,  darkening  the 
whole  land.  Through  its  influence,  population,  values  of  all  kinds, 
manufactures,  commerce,  railroads,  canals,  chanties,  the  post-office, 
colleges,  professional  schools,  academies,  public  schools,  newspapers, 
periodicals,  books,  authorship,  inventions,  are  all  stunted,  and,  under 
.a  Government  which  professes  to  be  founded  on  the  intelligence  of  the 
people,  one  in  five  of  native  white  adults  in  the  region  of  Slavery  is 
officially  reported  as  unable  to  read  and  write.  Never  was  the  saying 
of  Montesquieu  more  triumphantly  verified,  that  countries  are  not  cul 
tivated  by  reason  of  their  fertility,  but  by  reason  of  their  liberty.  To 
this  truth  the  Slave  States  testify  perpetually  by  every  possible  voice. 
Liberty  is  the  powerful  agent  which  drives  the  plough,  the  spindle,  and 
the  keel, — opens  avenues  of  all  kinds, — inspires  charity, — awakens  love 
of  knowledge,  and  supplies  the  means  of  gratifying  it.  Liberty  is  the 
first  of  schoolmasters  :  nay,  more  ;  it  is  the  Baconian  philosophy  of 
Civilization,  through  which  the  powers  and  activities  of  man  are  en 
larged  beyond  measure  or  imagination. 


THE  BARBARY   OF   THE   UNION.  339 


XXVI. 

Unerring  and  passionless  figures  thus  far  are  our  witnesses.  But 
their  testimony  will  be  enhanced  by  a  final  glance  at  the  geographical 
character  of  the  Slave  States  ;  and  here  there  is  a  singular  and  instruc 
tive  parallel. 

Jefferson  described  Virginia  as  "fast  sinking"  to  be  "the  Barbary  of 
the  Union," — meaning,  of  course,  the  Barbary  of  his  day,  which  had  not 
yet  turned  against  Slavery.  And  Franklin  also  wrote,  that  he  did  "not 
wish  to  see  a  new  Barbary  rising  in  America,  and  our  long  extended 
coast  occupied  by  piratical  States."  In  this  each  spoke  with  prophetic 
voice.  Though  on  different  sides  of  the  Atlantic  and  on  different  con 
tinents,  our  Slave  States  and  the  original  Barbary  States  occupy  nearly 
the  same  parallels  of  latitude,  occupy  nearly  the  same  extent  of  longi 
tude,  embrace  nearly  the  same  number  of  square  miles,  enjoy  kindred 
advantages  of  climate,  being  equally  removed  from  the  cold  of  the 
North  and  the  burning  heat  of  the  tropics,  and  also  have  similar  bound 
aries  of  land  and  water,  affording  kindred  advantages  of  ocean  and  sea, 
with  this  difference,  that  the  boundaries  of  the  two  regions  are  precisely 
reversed,  so  that  where  is  land  in  one  is  water  in  the  other,  while  in 
both  there  is  the  same  extent  of  ocean  and  the  same  extent  of  sea. 
Nor  is  this  all.  Algiers,  for  a  long  time  the  most  obnoxious  place  in 
the  Barbary  States  of  Africa,  once  branded  by  an  indignant  chronicler 
as  "  the  wall  of  the  Barbarian  world,"  is  situated  near  the  parallel  of 
36°  30'  north  latitude,  being  the  line  of  the  Missouri  Compromise, 
which  once  marked  the  wall  of  Slavery  in  our  country  west  of  the  Mis 
sissippi,  while  Morocco,  the  chief  present  seat  of  Slavery  in  the  African 
Barbary,  is  near  the  parallel  of  Charleston.  There  are  no  two  spaces 
on  the  surface  of  the  globe,  equal  in  extent  (and  careful  examination 
will  verify  what  I  am  about  to  state),  which  present  so  many  distinctive 
features  of  resemblance,  whether  we  consider  the  common  regions  of 
latitude  in  which  they  lie,  the  common  nature  of  their  boundaries,  their 
common  productions,  their  common  climate,  or  the  common  Barbarism 
which  sought  shelter  in  both.  I  do  not  stop  to  inquire  why  Slavery- 
banished  at  last  from  Europe,  banished  also  from  that  part  of  this  hemi 
sphere  which  corresponds  in  latitude  to  Europe — should  have  intrenched 
itself,  in  both  hemispheres,  in  similar  regions  of  latitude,  so  that  Virginia, 
Carolina,  Mississippi,  and  Missouri  are  the  American  complement  to 
Morocco,  Algiers,  Tripoli,  and  Tunis.  But  there  is  one  important  point 


340  MR.    CHESTNUT,    OF   SOUTH   CAROLINA. 

in  the  parallel  which  remains  to  be  fulfilled.  The  barbarous  Emperor 
of  Morocco,  in  the  words  of  a  treaty,  so  long  ago  as  the  last  century, 
declared  his  desire  that  "  the  odious  name  of  Slavery  might  be  effaced 
from  the  memory  of  men ; "  while  Algiers,  Tripoli,  and  Tunis,  whose  tena 
city  for  the  Barbarism  was  equalled  only  by  that  of  South  Carolina,  have 
renounced  it  one  after  another,  and  delivered  it  over  to  the  indignation 
of  mankind.  Following  this  example,  the  parallel  will  be  complete, 
and  our  Barbary  will  become  the  complement  in  Freedom  to  the  Afri 
can  Barbary,  as  it  has  already  been  its  complement  in  Slavery,  and  is 
unquestionably  its  complement  in  geographical  character. 

Thus,  sir,  speaking  for  Freedom  in  Kansas,  I  have  spoken  for  Free 
dom  everywhere,  and  for  Civilization  ;  and  as  the  less  is  contained  in 
the  greater,  so  are  all  arts,  all  sciences,  all  economies,  all  refinements, 
all  charities,  all  delights  of  life,  embodied  in  this  cause.  You  may 
reject  it,  but  it  will  be  only  for  to-day.  The  sacred  animosity  of  Free 
dom  and  Slavery  can  end  only  with  the  triumph  of  Freedom.  The 
same  question  will  be  carried  soon  before  that  high  tribunal,  supreme 
over  Senate  and  Court,  where  the  judges  are  counted  by  millions,  and 
the  judgment  rendered  will  be  the  solemn  charge  of  an  awakened 
people,  instructing  a  new  President,  in  the  name  of  Freedom,  to  see 
that  Civilization  receives  no  detriment.  *  *  * 


XXVII. 

I  omit  altogether  that  part  of  the  speech  which  treats 
of  the  character  of  Slave-masters,  and  the  black  array  of 
violence  and  crime  as  evidence  of  low  civilization  through 
out  the  South  ;  and  the  treatment  of  Northern  citizens, 
when  in  the  power  of  Southern  men,  wherever  they  ex 
pressed  any  views  not  agreeing  with  the  Institution. 

When  Mr.  SUMNER  resumed  his  seat,  Mr.  Chestnut, 
of  South  Carolina,  uttered  these  words  : 

"  Mr.  President,  after  the  extraordinary,  though  characteristic,  speech 
just  uttered  in  the  Senate,  it  is  proper  that  I  assign  the  reason  for  the 
position  we  are  now  inclined  to  assume.  After  ranging  over  Europe, 
crawling  through  the  back  doors  to  whine  at  the  feet  of  British  aris 
tocracy,  craving  pity,  and  reaping  a  rich  harvest  of  contempt,  the 
slanderer  of  States  and  men  reappears  in  the  Senate.  We  had  hoped  to 


HIS   UNCONTROLLABLE    RAGE.  341 

be  relieved  from  the  outpourings  of  such  vulgar  malice.  We  had  hoped 
that  one  who  had  felt,  though  ignominiously  he  failed  to  meet,  the  con 
sequences  of  a  former  insolence  would  have  become  wiser,  if  not  better, 
by  experience.  In  this  I  am  disappointed,  and  I  regret  it.  Mr.  Pre 
sident,  in  the  heroic  ages  of  the  world  men  were  deified  for  the  pos 
session  and  the  exercise  of  some  virtues, — wisdom,  truth,  justice, 
magnanimity,  courage.  In  Egypt,  also,  we  know  they  deified  beasts  and 
reptiles  ;  but  even  that  bestial  people  worshipped  their  idols  on  account 
of  some  supposed  virtue.  It  has  been  left  for  this  day,  for  this  country, 
for  the  Abolitionists  of  Massachusetts,  to  deify  the  incarnation  of  malice, 
mendacity,  and  cowardice.  Sir,  we  do  not  intend  to  be  guilty  of  aid 
ing  in  the  apotheosis  of  pusillanimity  and  meanness.  We  do  not  intend 
to  contribute,  by  any  conduct  on  our  part,  to  increase  the  devotees  at 
the  shrine  of  this  new  idol.  We  know  what  is  expected  and  what  is 
desired.  We  are  not  inclined  again  to  send  forth  the  recipient  of 
PUNISHMENT  howling  through  the  world,  yelping  fresh  cries  of 
slander  and  malice.  These  are  the  reasons,  which  I  feel  it  due  to  myself 
and  others  to  give  to  the  Senate  and  the  country,  why  we  have  quietly 
listened  to  what  has  been  said,  and  why  we  can  take  no  other  notice  of 
the  matter." 

He  spoke  with  uncontrollable  rage,  and  was  listened 
to  with  eagerness  and  approval  by  the  Slave-masters  of 
the  Senate,  both  from  the  North  and  the  South.  There 
was  no  call  to  order  by  the  Chair,  which  was  at  the  time 
occupied  by  Mr.  BIGLER,  of  Pennsylvania.  The  storm 
seemed  ready  to  burst  once  more  in  violence.  But  this 
time  brutality  and  murder  were  to  seek  more  cowardly 
and  skulking  assassins.  We  have  seen  how  they  were 
foiled  by  the  vigilance  of  Mr.  SUMNER'S  friends. 


XXVIII. 

Shortly  after  the  delivery  of  his  last  speech,  Mr. 
SUMNER  presented  a  petition  of  citizens  of  Massachusetts 
of  African  descent,  praying  the  Senate  to  suspend  the 
labors  of  the  Select  Committee  which  had  been  ap 
pointed  to  investigate  the  late  invasion  and  seizure  of 
property  at  Harper's  Ferry,  and  that  all  persons  now  in 
custody  under  the  proceedings  of  such  committee,  be  dis- 


342  MADNESS   PRECEDES   DESTRUCTION. 

charged.  This  was  referred  to  the  Select  Committee, 
June  5th.  On  the  i5th  of  the  month,  Mr.  MASON  re 
ported  from  that  Committee,  a  resolution,  "  that  the 
paper  purporting  to  be  a  petition  from  citizens  of  the 
Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts  of  African  descent, 
presented  to  the  Senate  by  CHARLES  SUMNER,  a  Senator 
of  Massachusetts,  be  returned  by  the  Secretary  to  the 
Senator  who  presented  it."  Supposing  that  this  resolu 
tion  would  be  called  up,  Mr.  SUMNER  prepared  some 
notes  of  a  speech  he  intended  to  deliver  on  the  subject, 
in  which  the  following  paragraph  occurred  : 

"There  is  a  saying  of  antiquity,  which  has  the  confirming  voice  of  all 
intervening  time,  that  '  Whom  the  Gods  would  destroy,  they  first  make 
mad.'  And  now,  sir,  while  humbled  for  my  country  that  such  a  proposi 
tion  should  be  introduced  into  the  Senate,  I  accept  it  as  an  omen  of 
that  madness  which  precedes  the  fall  of  its  authors." 

But  the  resolution  never  was  called  up,  and  no  other 
resolution  of  such  tyrannical  hardihood  and  shameless 
insult,  was  ever  renewed  in  that  Senate  house,  for  the 
great  struggle  was  at  hand,  in  which  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 
was  to  be  triumphantly  elected  President  of  the  United 
States. 

XXIX. 

On  his  way  from  Washington,  after  the  adjournment 
of  Congress,  at  the  invitation  of  the  Young  Men's  Re 
publican  Union,  New  York  City,  the  Senator  delivered 
a  powerful  campaign  speech  on  "  THE  REPUBLICAN 
PARTY:  ITS  ORIGIN,  NECESSITY  AND  PERMANENCE,"  to  a 
mass  meeting  at  Cooper  Institute,  July  n,  1860. 

It  was  evident  that  the  movement  had  now  become 
formidable  enough  to  command  respect  from  all  parties. 


CAMPAIGN   SPEECH   AT   COOPER   INSTITUTE.  343 

Of  the  thousands  who  packed  that  hall — an  auditory 
which  seemed  more  like  a  gathering  for  a  grand  concert, 
or  festival,  than  a  political  mass  meeting — few  have  for 
gotten  the  imposing  character  of  the  assemblage,  or  the 
strange  mingling  of  earnest  determination  and  unre 
strained  enthusiasm,  manifested  on  the  occasion.  The 
scene  is  thus  described  by  the  Evening  Post : 

Mr.  SUMNER  was  as  happy  in  manner,  as  he  was  forcible  in  the  matter 
of  his  speech.  His  commanding  person,  his  distinct  utterance,  and  his 
graceful  elocution,  combined  with  the  eloquence  of  his  words  in  keep 
ing  the  immense  auditory  to  their  seats  for  two  hours,  without  a  move 
ment,  and  almost  without  a  breath,  save  when  the  applause  broke  forth. 
It  is  the  first  time  Mr.  Sumner  has  spoken  in  public  since  he  was  laid 
low  in  the  Senate  House,  and  New  York  by  this  grand  demonstration 
has  shown  its  eagerness  to  welcome  him  to  the  field  of  so  many  former 
triumphs. 

Mr.  SEWARD  wrote  to  the  speaker  :  "  Your  speech,  in 
every  part,  is  noble  and  great.  Even  you  never  spoke 
so  well." 

We  have  no  room  for  this  Oration — for  it  is  worthy  of 
the  name  : — it  is  enough,  however*,  to  say  that,  without 
any  sacrifice  of  the  lofty  tone  and  scholarly  finish  of  his 
Senatorial  speeches,  it  most  strikingly  popularized  the 
chief  arguments  that  had  made  the  burden  of  his  former 
efforts — that  it  was  printed  entire  in  the  Tribune,  Times, 
Herald  and  World,  and  that  enormous  editions  were  cir 
culated  by  the  Young  Men's  Republican  Union,  while 
the  Republican  press  everywhere  reproduced  it,  till  it 
fell  '  like  leaves  in  Vallambrosa/  upon  every  farm,  roof- 
tree,  counting-house,  and  workshop,  in  the  great  Free 
North. 

A  Republican  wigwam  was  to  be  dedicated  in  New 
York  on  the  6th  of  the  following  August,  at  which  an 


344  LINCOLN'S  ADMINISTRATION  RATIFIED. 

effort  was  made  to  get  Mr.  SUMXER  to  speak ;  but  they 
had  to  be  content  with  a  hearty  reply,  in  which  he 
said  : 

As  citizens  of  a  great  Metropolis,  you  have  duties  of  peculiar  dif 
ficulty.  It  is  in  these  centres  that  the  Pro-Slavery  sentiment  of  the 
North  shows  itself  with  a  violence  often  kindred  to  that  of  the  planta 
tion,  so  as  to  almost  justify  the  language  of  Jefferson,  who  called  great 
cities  "  sores"  on  the  body  politic.  Even  this  expression  does  not  seem 
too  strong,  when  we  recognize  the  infection  of  Slavery,  breaking  out 
sometimes  in  violence  and  mobs,  and  as  constantly  manifest  in  the  press, 
public  speeches,  and  in  a  corrupt  public  sentiment.  It  belongs  to  the 
Republican  party,  by  gentle  and  healing  influences,  guided  by  a  firm 
hand,  to  inaugurate  the  work  of  cure,  that  health  may  be  substituted 
for  disease. 

XXX. 

On  the  29th  of  the  same  month,  the  Republicans  of 
Massachusetts  assembled  in  Mass  Convention  at  Wor 
cester,  to  ratify  the  nomination  of  Mr.  LINCOLN  for 
President,  and  JOHN  A.  ANDREW,  for  the  first  time,  as 
Governor  of  Massachusetts.  Mr.  SUMNER  delivered  the 
principal  speech,  on  *>'  The  Presidential  Candidates,  and 
the  Issues  of  the  Canvass."  He  went  into  a  clear  and 
analytical  exposition  of  the  entire  merits  of  the  ques 
tion, — the  comparative  claims  for  support  of  LINCOLN  and 
HAMLIN,  representing  the  now  formidable  Republican 
party  ;  of  BRECKENRIDGE  and  LANE,  the  candidates  of 
the  now  clearly  announced  champions  of  the  Democra 
tic  Pro-Slavery  Party  ;  of  DOUGLAS  and  JOHNSON,  the 
candidates  of  the  seceding  body  of  Democrats,  known  as 
the  DOUGLAS,  or  Squatter  Sovereignty  Party  ;  and  of 
BELL  and  EVERETT,  candidates  of  the  few  old  remaining 
Whigs,  who,  like  venerable  barnacles,  were  still  clinging 
to  a  sinking  ship.  Nothing  but  imperative  necessity  ex- 


THE   WAR   OF  THE   REBELLION.  345 

eludes  that  speech  from  this  volume.  This  memorable 
campaign,  brought  out  from  these  four  quarters  more 
ability  in  debate,  and  excited  a  deeper  interest  among 
all  classes,  North  and  South,  than  any  other  within  re 
cent  times  ;  nor  has  any  campaign  perhaps  ever  mar 
shalled,  in  public  meetings  and  at  the  ballot-box,  such 
excited  and  contending  hosts. 


SECTION  EIGHTH. 

The  War  of  the  Rebellion. 
I. 

THE  first  shot  into  Fort  Sumter  was  the  signal-gun 
of  the  greatest  and  the  strangest  war  ever  waged  on 
earth. 

That  shot  was  thrown  to  the  feet  of  Liberty  in  defiance. 
It  was  intended  to  inaugurate  a  life-or-death  struggle 
between  Slavery  and  Freedom.  It  did  its  work ;  and 
the  cannon  which  threw  it  will  live  longer  in  history 
than  the  torch  of  the  wretch  who  burned  the  Ephesian 
Temple. 

Again,  and  on  a  higher  stage,  the  struggle  was  to  come, 
to  test  the  vital  forces  of  Civilization  and  Barbarism, — of 
Progress  and  Retrogression, — of  Order  and  Anarchy,— 
of  Life  or  Death,  for  men  and  communities,  for  society 
and  governments.  Above  all  was  it  a  final  grapple 
between  the  Past  whose  dead  had  buried  its  own  dead, 
and  the  Future  which  was  to  give  life  to  all. 

Something  like  this  had   been  witnessed  during  the 


346  DEAD  NATIONS  NEVER  RETURN. 

many  thousand  years  of  deadly  strife  the  human  race 
had  been  going  through,  in  approaching  Liberty  as 
the  road  to  God, — the  shrine  where  all  nations  are  yet 
to  worship. 

The  records  of  human  defeats,  sufferings,  and  triumphs, 
show  little  more  than  the  heroism  of  the  true  and  the 
good,  in  resisting  the  false  and  the  bad. 

• 

II. 

It  seems  to  be  the  will  of  Heaven  that  nations  must 
work  out  their  own  salvation  as  nations.  The  final 
Court  of  Appeals,  to  which  even  the  uneducated  con 
science  points  its  indexing  finger,  will  judge  the  indi 
vidual,  not  the  community. 

When  nations  pass  away,  they  never  return.  We 
survey  their  wrecks  stranded  on  the  shore  of  time, 
merely  to  read  some  commentaries  on  their  history,— 
their  rise  and  development,  their  decline  and  fall.  But 
civilization,  which  means  progression  towards  the  just, 
the  great,  the  safe  and  sublime,  was  the  law  God  insti 
tuted  for  Society. 

Great  thoughts  never  die.  They  go  among  the  eter 
nal  archives  of  human  hope  and  security,  to  which  the 
treasures  of  successive  a^es  are  committed. 

o 

In  the  literature  and  arts  of  the  ancients,  we  have 
most  of  the  finest  thoughts  of  the  finest  minds, — the 
chief  records  of  the  noblest  deeds  of  the  noblest  men. 
And  thus  the  torch  of  light  is  safely  transmitted  from 
age  to  age. 

All  its  effulgence  was  shed  over  us  from  the  hour 
our  country  was  born.  We  had  inherited  all  the  earth 
could  give  us,  with  the  fairest  and  broadest  field  for  its 


VISION   OF   LIBERTY   IN   THE   NEW   WORLD.  347 

use  and  development.  The  Creator  had  looked  on  us 
benignantly,  as  our  fathers  sailed  for  a  new  home  be 
yond  the  sea  to  find  a  resting-place  for  earth's  children. 
Thus  high  did  Heaven  seem  to  fix  its  purpose  on 
North  America, — thus  sublimely  did  our  founders  com 
prehend  the  fact. 

III. 

Our  history  had  been  more  wonderful  than  the  dreams 
of  Oriental  fancy.  All  the  images  of  wealth,  prosperity, 
and  power  that  had  ever  thrilled  the  brain-pulses  of  the 
most  ideal  disciple  of  Plato,  vanished  into  thin  air  before 
the  form  of  Young  American  Liberty,  rising  from  this 
fresh  continent,  proclaiming  to  the  race  freedom,  order, 
and  happiness  for  all.  No  such  treasure  had  before 
been  committed  to  men.  When  He  spread  this  festival, 
He  asked  all  nations  to  come.  Hardly  a  day  went  by, 
but  some  winged  messenger  came  from  the  Old  World, 
freighted  with  hearts  that  were  weary,  seeking  a  new 
roof-tree, — with  muscles  that  were  over-strained  by 
the  unpaid  toil  of  Europe ;  but  all  ready  to  carry  out 
the  dreams  of  personal,  manly,  ennobling  social  life. 

The  best  minds  and  the  warmest  hearts  on  the  other 
side  of  the  water  understood  America.  They  knew  our 
history,  and  they  burned  with  enthusiasm  to  mix  their 
fortunes  up  with  our  earlier  settlers. 

They  did  ;  and  even  this  tide  of  national  disaster 
hardly  arrested  their  coming.  They  were  arriving  still ; 
and  they  found  fertile  soil  and  free  institutions  for  their 
free  possession,  till  at  last  all  Europe  and  Asia  will 
together  rejoice  in  the  triumph  of  the  thoughts  and  de 
sires  of  the  brave  and  humane  men  who  constructed  our 
system  of  civic  life. 


348  OUR  PROGRESS   TILL    i860. 


IV. 

And  thus  we  went  on  till  1860,  pressing-  our  free 
course  to  wealth  without  limit,  to  prosperity  beyond  our 
own  comprehension,  and  to  happiness  so  complete  that 
we  forgot  the  source  of  it  all, — when  we  made  the  dread 
ful  discovery  for  the  first  time,  that  our  career  was 
arrested  for  a  while,  if  not  forever.  We  were  not  going 
too  fast ;  we  were  only  on  the  wrong  road.  We  were 
rushing  madly  from  the  sphere  where  our  Maker  had 
placed  us,  and  He  laid  His  great  hand  on  His  own 
work,  when  suddenly  thirty  millions  of  people,  under  one 
government,  stood  paralyzed  on  the  brink  of  ruin. 

We  had  allowed  Slavery  to  become  the  law  of  the 
land.  We  had  dethroned  the  Liberty  we  had  boasted 
of,  and  enthroned  the  Dagon  of  Human  Servitude  in  its 
place.  We  had  prostituted  to  the  basest  purpose  the 
great  gift  bestowed  on  us  so  lavishly ;  and  in  the  merci 
less  greed  for  gain,  when  we  already  had  a  thousand 
times  more  than  we  could  use,  we  ran  riot  into  every 
form  of  luxury  and  licentiousness  which  could  tempt  the 
appetite,  exalt  the  pride,  or  inflame  the  ambition  of  our 
people. 

Religion,  with  all  its  sublime  traditions,  and  all  its 
holy  allurements  to  the  better  life  we  could  lead,  had 
lost  much  of  its  magic  power  over  the  great  masses — 
over  the  young  and  the  old,  except  the  few  who  were 
mercifully  removed  from  the  great  whirlpool  of  the 
heated  life  we  were  livingf ;  for  the  rest  all  clutched  like 

O    ' 

birds  of  prey  for  the  nearest  carrion;  and  we  "jumped 
the  life  to  come. " 


ARRESTED   AT   OUR   BELSHAZZAR    FEAST.  349 

V. 

In  the  midst  of  our  National  Belshazzar-Feast,  of 
pride,  voluptuousness,  and  enchantment,  the  shot  at 
Fort  Sumter  fell  like  a  bolt  of  lightning*.  It  struck  the 
hearts  of  the  revellers,  and  we  began  to  take  our  eyes 
from  the  dust  and  turn  them  up  to  heaven. 

By  one  wave  of  that  wand  which  never  waves  twice 
to  do  its  work,  the  handwriting  was  written  on  all  the 
walls,  and  the  Palace  of  our  greatness  was  sinking  to 
ashes.  The  Republic  was  at  stake.  We  had  played, 
and  we  had  lost ! 

We  had  attempted  an  impossibility.  We  had  tried 
to  make  Liberty  and  Slavery  live  together  on  the  same 
soil. 

While  the  free  North  was  prospering,  we  had  allowed 
the  enslaved  to  be  immolated.  While  we  could  flourish 
under  the  fragrant  branches  of  Liberty's  tree,  we  were 
manuring  the  roots  of  the  Upas,  whose  branches  were 
spreading  over  our  Northern  communities,  our  homes, 
our  hearts.  Its  subtle  and  deadly  poison  had  already 
struck  through  the  veins  and  arteries,  and  approached 
the  springs  of  life. 

For  a  moment  we  were  like  a  traveler  arrested  in  the 
speed  of  his  journey,  with  a  fevered  pulse  and  difficult 
breathing.  The  discovery  did  not  come  all  at  once  ;  nor 
did  the  nation  feel  it  deeply  enough  for  a  long  time,  to 
be  ready  to  recover.  To  Europe  it  looked  like  the  be 
ginning  of  our  national  end — an  irrevocable  leap  to 
ruin. 

Was  it  death  ?  or  was  it  fever  with  delirium  ? 

It  was  both ! 

The  only  question,  after  two  years  of  struggle,  which 


350  SUMNER'S  MIGHTY  INFLUENCE. 

blotted  out  all  the  puny  strifes  of  other  empires,  was 
whether  there  was  a  resurrection  and  a  redeemed  life 
for  the  great  Republic  of  the  world. 

VI. 

If  Mr.  SUMNER  had  more  to  do  than  any  other  man 
in  influencing  public  opinion  on  the  subject  of  Slavery ; 
and,  as  was  alleged  by  his  enemies  at  the  time,  more 
to  do  with  bringing  on  the  Rebellion  —  a  false  and 
scandalous  charge — it  is  certain  that  he  was  no  less 
active  in  shaping  the  policy  of  the  Senate  after  the  war 
had  got  fairly  under  way.  It  might  be  a  more  accurate 
statement  to  say  that  he  had  more  to  do  in  shaping  the 
opinion  of  the  nation,  than  that  of  the  Senate,  or  ad 
ministration  ;  for,  not  being  a  politician,  in  the  common 
acceptation  of  that  term,  he  never  sought  to  stand  well 
with  the  politicians  of  his  time,  nor  with  men  in  power. 
He  was  the  great  Outsider — the  great  Commoner, — the 
Prophet, — the  Apostle, — the  Teacher, — the  Guide,  of 
the  American  People.  Sooner  or  later,  his  views  on 
all  the  great  measures  that  occupied  the  public  mind, 
became  public  opinion.  Wild,  ultra,  extravagant  as  he 
was  often  called,  the  sober  judgment  of  the  country  to 
which  he  always  appealed,  was  sure  in  the  end  to  come 
to  his  position. 

VII. 

On  the  first  of  October,  1861,  he  addressed  the 
Republican  State  Convention,  which  again  met  at  Wor 
cester,  on  the  topic  of  the  hour,  in  a  most  effective 
speech,  which,  under  various  titles,  was  widely  circulated. 
In  one  pamphlet  it  was  called  "  Emancipation  the  Cure 


ANOTHER   SPEECH    AT  WORCESTER.  35 1 

of  the  Rebellion  ;  "  another,  "  Union  and  Peace  :  how 
they  shall  be  restored  ;  "  and  again,  "  Emancipation  our 
best  Weapon."  In  opening  the  business  of  the  Con 
vention,  its  chairman,  Mr.  Dawes,  said :  "  Since  last 
assembled  here  for  a  kindred  purpose,  the  mighty 
march  of  events  has  borne  the  popular  effort  on  to  a 
higher  plane,  than  ever  before  opened  to  the  gaze  of 
man.  Massachusetts  cannot  if  she  would,  and  thank 
God,  she  would  not  if  she  could,  perform  an  indifferent 
part  in  this  life-struggle  of  the  Republic." 

As  Mr.  SUMNER  rose  to  speak,  the  warmth  of  his 
reception  indicated  feelings  of  gratitude  for  his  public 
services,  that  must  have  been  grateful  to  him  after  all 
that  had  occurred.  But  he  well  knew  that  the  Repub 
lican  party  even  in  Massachusetts,  was  by  no  .means 
unanimous  in  regard  to  the  policy  which  the  administra 
tion  should  pursue  on  the  subject  of  slavery.  It  is  well 
remembered  by  those  who  were  sufficiently  informed  at 
the  time,  that  .the  Anti-Slavery  tendencies  of  Mr. 
LINCOLN  and  his  Cabinet  were  far  from  being  of  a 
radical  type.  The  President  had  from  the  beginning, 
emphatically  announced  that  he  entertained  no  hostility 
against  Slavery,  nor  did  he  propose  to  interfere  with  it 
where  it  existed  by  due  process  of  law.  It  is  safe  to 
say  that  no  member  of  his  Cabinet  differed  with  him 
materially  in  these  respects  :  nor  did  any  considerable 
portion  of  those  who  participated  in  the  early  events  of 
the  war,  mix  up  the  merits  or  demerits  of  Slavery  with 
the  subject.  But  believing,  as  Mr.  SUMNER  did,  that 
Slavery  was  short-lived,  and  that  in  the  collision  which 
the  South  itself  had  brought  on,  Emancipation  must  be 
the  final  result,  he  spoke  and  acted  on  this  conviction. 
He  was  as  well  persuaded  what  the  result  of  the  appeal 


352  HE   INVOKES   EMANCIPATION. 

to  battle  would  be,  when  it  was  first  made,  as  he  ever 
became  afterwards.  Abhorring  bloodshed,  and  willing 
to  avoid  it  up  to  the  last  possible  moment,  he  saw  no 
alternative  but  victory,  after  the  dernier  ressort  of  Slavery 
had  been  invoked.  As  a  war-measure,  he  was,  from 
the  start,  in  favor  of  a  Proclamation  of  Emancipation  ; 
the  earliest,  probably,  to  entertain  this  opinion  ;  certainly 
the  first  to  openly  express  it.  The  result  vindicated 
his  prescience.  He  had  foreseen,  also,  that  the  danger 
of  a  recognition  of  the  Southern  Confederacy  by  the 
great  Powers  of  Europe,  could  be  averted  in  no  other 
way ;  for  no  European  Cabinet  would  hazard  inter 
vention  or  recognition  of  the  South,  if  they  clearly  saw 
that  the  struggle  had  become  a  simple  issue  between 
Freedom  and  Slavery.  He  was  therefore  urgent  in 
pressing  these  views,  at  all  times,  and  in  all  quarters. 

VIII. 

And  now  after  glancing  briefly  at  his  public  course  in 
reference  to  the  atrocities  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law— 
at  his  argument  proving  Freedom  to  be  national,  and 
Slavery  sectional — his  efforts  to  prevent  the  extension 
of  slavery  over  new  Territories — the  vindication  of 
Freedom  in  Kansas — the  tyrannical  usurpations  of  the 
Slave  Oligarchy ;  and  more  particularly  the  way  in 
which  he  had  dragged  the  barbarism  of  slavery  into  the 
light  of  public  gaze,  he  said  to  the  Worcester  Conven 
tion  :  "  These  are  topics  no  longer  of  practical  interest ; 
they  are  not  of  to-day.  Let  us,"  he  said,  "  rejoice  that 
so  much  has  been  gained,  and  from  the  extent  of  the 
present  triumph,  take  hope  and  courage  for  the  future. 
Providence  will  be  with  the  good  cause  in  times  to  come, 


HE   EXULTS   IN   VIEW   OF   THE   PAST.  353 

as  in  times  past.  Others  may  despair ;  I  do  not.  Others 
may  see  gloom  ;  I  cannot.  Others  may  hesitate ;  I  will 
not.  Already  is  the  nation  saved." 

He  could  not  withhold  the  expression  of  his  thanks 
to  Almighty  God  that  Emancipation  had  already  begun 
to  count  its  victories.  "  The  Slave  Oligarchy,"  he  con 
tinued,  in  one  of  his  cumulative  bursts  of  volcanic 
argument,  "  which,  according  to  the  vaunt  of  a  slave- 
holding  Senator,  has  ruled  the  Republic  for  more  than 
fifty  years  ;- — which  has  stamped  its  degrading  character 
upon  the  national  forehead — which  has  entered  into, 
and  possessed,  not  only  the  politics,  but  the  literature, 
and  even  the  religion  of  the  land — which  has  embroiled 
us  at  home,  and  given  us  a  bad  name  abroad— 
which  has  wielded  at  will,  President,  Cabinet,  and  even 
judicial  tribunals — which  has  superseded  public  opinion 
by  substituting  its  own  immoral  behests — which  has  ap 
propriated  to  itself  the  offices  and  honors  of  the  Re 
public — which  has  established  Slavery  as  the  single  test 
and  shibboleth  of  favor, — -which,  after  opening  all  our 
Territories  to  this  wrong,  was  already  promising  to  re 
new  the  Slave-trade  and  its  unutterable  woes, — nay, 
more,  which  in  the  instinct  of  that  "tyranny  through 
which  it  ruled,  was  beating  down  all  safe-guards  of 
human  rights,  freedom  of  speech,  freedom  of  the  press, 
security  of  person,  and  delivering  the  whole  country  to 
a  sway  whose  vulgarity  was  second  only  to  its  madness 
—this  domineering  Slave  Oligarchy  is  dislodged  from 
the  National  Government,  never  more  to  return.  Thus 
far  at  least  has  Emancipation  prevailed.  The  greatest 
slave  of  all  is  free.  Pillars  greater  than  those  of  Her 
cules  might  fitly  mark  this  progress." 
23 


354  EMANCIPATION   WOULD    END    THE   WAR. 


IX. 


Impatient  at  the  feebleness  of  the  short-sighted  policy 
with  which  we  were  carrying  on  the  war — during  the 
first  year  acting  simply  on  the  defensive — "  Defence, 
did  I  say  ?  With  mortification  I  utter  the  word.  Rebel 
conspirators  have  set  upon  us,  and  now  besiege  the 
National  Government.  They  besiege  it  at  Washington, 
where  are  the  President  and  his  Cabinet,  with  the 
National  archives.  They  besiege  it  at  Fortress  Monroe, 
on  the  Atlantic;  at  St.  Louis  on  the  Mississippi;  and 
now  they  besiege  it  in  Kentucky.  Everywhere  we  are 
on  the  defensive.  Strongholds  are  wrested  from  us  ; 
soldiers  gathered  under  the  folds  of  the  national  flaof 

O>  O 

are  compelled  to  surrender  ;  citizens,  whose  only  offence 
is  loyalty,  are  driven  from  their  homes ;  bridges  are 
burned ;  railways  are  disabled  ;  steamers  and  ships  are 
seized  ;  the  largest  navy  yard  of  the  country  is  appro 
priated  ;  commerce  is  hunted  on  the  sea  ;  and  property, 
wherever  it  can  be  reached,  ruthlessly  robbed  or  de 
stroyed  !  Do  you  ask  in  whose  name  all  this  is  done  ? 
The  answer  is  easy.  Not  'in  the  name  of  God  and 
the  Continental  Congress,'  as  Ethan  Allen  summoned 
Ticonderoga,  but  '  in  the  name  of  Slavery.'  It  is  often 
said  that  war  will  make  an  end  of  Slavery.  This  is 
probable.  But  it  is  surer  still  that  the  overthrow  of 
.Slavery  will  make  an  end  of  the  war.  Therefore  do  I 
believe,  beyond  all  question,  that  reason,  justice,  and 
policy,  each  and  all  unite  in  declaring  that  the  war  must 
be  brought  to  bear  directly  on  the  grand  conspirator 
and  omnipresent  enemy.  Not  to  do  so,  is  to  take  upon 
ourselves  all  the  weakness  of  Slavery,  while  we  leave 


THE  AUTHOR'S  INTERCOURSE  WITH  MR.  SUMNER.     355 

to  the  rebels  its  boasted  resources  of  military  strength. 
It  is  not  necessary  even  to  carry  the  war  into  Africa. 
It  will  be  enough  if  we  carry  Africa  into  the  war. 
The  moment  this  is  done,  Rebellion  will  begin  its  bad 
luck,  and  the  Union  become  secure  forever." 

Mr.  SUMNER  had  been  addressing  as  intelligent  an 
auditory — one  as  well  instructed  in  public  affairs,  as 
almost  any  that  could  be  assembled  ;  and  he  carried  the 
Convention  with  him.  He  was  far  in  advance  of  the 
public  opinion  of  the  time  ;  and  it  was  only  because 
public  opinion  was  behind  events,  that  years  more 
of  humiliating  disaster  were  to  attend  our  armies,  and 
prolong  the  life  of  the  Rebellion. 

X. 

Being  at  the  time,  and  continuing  until  the  close  of 
the  war,  a  close  observer,  in  Washington,  of  men  and 
events,  and  with  every  facility  that  I  desired  for  infor 
mation  on  any  and  all  subjects  connected  with  the 
stupendous  crisis  the  nation  was  passing  through,  I 
shall  hereafter,  in  this  recital,  draw  with  considerable 
freedom  upon  my  own  personal  sources  of  knowledge. 

There  was  scarcely  a  public  man  on  either  side,  in 
this  great  struggle,  that  I  had  not,  during  former  years, 
been  acquainted  with.  It  was  especially  during  the  first 
two  years  of  the  war,  that  I  had  constant  and  confiden 
tial  intercourse  with  Mr.  SUMNER  himself;  and  as  this 
record  is  confined  mainly  to  the  part  he  acted  in  the 
great  drama,  I  shall  make  some  statements  of  my  own 
knowledge  concerning  facts  which  could  not  at  the  time 
be  communicated  to  the  public.  During  the  whole 
period  of  the  war,  I  kept  a  daily  record  of  facts  concern- 


356  SUMNER  URGES   LINCOLN    IN    VAIN. 

ing  men  and  events  ;  and  from  that  record  I  shall  transfer 
much  relating  to  the  views  and  course  of  Mr.  SUMNER, 
as  well  as  those  of  President  LINCOLN,  the  progress  of 
whose  opinions  I  traced  with  indescribable  interest  up 
to  the  moment  the  Proclamation  of  Emancipation  was 
issued,  when  his  policy  was  fully  settled.  From  the 
stand  he  then  took,  he  never  afterwards  deviated  the 
breadth  of  a  hair  ;  although  he  was  frequently  obliged 
either  to  act  against  the  well-known  views  of  several 
members  of  his  Cabinet,  or,  as  sometimes  occurred, 
Avithout  their  knowledge,  and  solely  on  his  own  respon 
sibility,  since  he  knew  that  the  country  would  hold  him 
answerable  for  the  policy  of  the  administration.  Nor 
was  he  the  man  ever  to  shirk  a  public  or  a  private  duty. 

XI. 

Everybody  will  remember  the  dismay  with  which  the 
news  of  the  first  battle  of  Bull  Run  spread  through  the 
country.  Two  or  three  days  after  this  event,  Mr.  SUM 
NER  called  upon  the  President,  with  a  view  of  urging 
for  the  first  time,  the  policy  of  Emancipation.  I  saw 
the  Senator  shortly  after,  and  he  gave  me  an  account  of 
that  interview  which  lasted  till  midnight.  He  said  the 
President  did  not  agree  with  him  ;  that  he  still  adhered 
to  the  policy  of  forbearance,  believing  that  the  country 
was  not  prepared  to  go  so  far  as  Mr.  Sumner  would 
advise.  Least  of  all  did  the  President  favor  either  of 
the  two  bills  he  had  introduced  before  the  battle  of 
Bull  Run,  one  of  which — that  of  July  i6th — was  "  For 
the  confiscation  of  property  of  persons  in  rebellion 
against  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States  ;  " 
and  the  other,  two  days  later,  "  For  the  punishment  of 


PRO-SLAVERY   POLICY   OF  THE   CABINET.  357 

conspiracy,  and  kindred  offenses  against  the  United 
States,  and  for  the  confiscation  of  the  property  of  the 
offenders."  No  mention  had  been  made  of  Slavery  in 
these  bills,  but  they  indicated  a  policy  altogether  too 
vigorous  to  command  at  that  time  the  approval  of  Mr. 
LINCOLN. 

The  difference — and  a  very  great  one  it  was — between 
the  two  men's  views,  was,  that  Mr.  SUMNER  believed  the 
hour  had  come  for  resorting  to  the  full  exercise  of  the 
War  Pozver,  desiring  to  have  the  President  boldly  lead 
the  way  in  the  enunciation.  But  Mr.  LINCOLN  could 
not  see  it  in  that  light ;  and  on  the  I7th  of  July,  the  day 
that  intervened  between  Mr.  SUMNER'S  two  bills,  the 
following  General  Order  from  Headquarters,  was  issued 
by  Mr.  CAMERON,  Secretary  of  War  : 

Fugitive  slaves  will  under  no  pretext  whatever  be  permitted  to  reside, 
or  in  any  way  be  harbored  in  the  quarters  and  camps  of  the  troops 
serving  in  this  Department ;  neither  will  such  slaves  be  allowed  to 
accompany  troops  on  the  march.  Commanders  of  troops  will  be  held 
responsible  for  a  strict  observance  of  the  Order." 

In  fact,  during  the  first  year  of  the  war,  Mr.  LINCOLN'S 
administration  acted  in  superfluous  good  faith  with  the 
Rebels.  Only  a  week  after  the  Secretary's  Order,  the 
Attorney-General  instructed  the  Marshals  of  Missouri 
to  execute  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act  throughout  their  dis 
tricts.  But  some  interruptions  were  to  take  place  in 
carrying  it  out  in  Virginia ;  for  on  the  3oth  of  July,  Gen. 
BUTLER,  in  a  letter  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  expressed 
the  opinion  that  "  since  an  able-bodied  Negro,  fit  to 
work  in  the  trenches,  is  property  liable  to  be  used  in  aid 
of  the  Rebellion,  he  consequently  becomes  a  contraband 
of  War  /  "  and  without  any  hesitation  he  defined  his 
policy,  as  a  General  in  the  service,  by  saying  : 


358  GEN.  BUTLER'S  CONTRABANDS. 

In  a  state  of  Rebellion,  I  would  confiscate  that  which  was  used  to 
oppose  my  aims,  and  take  all  that  property  which  constituted  the 
wealth  of  that  State,  and  furnished  the  means  by  which  the  war  is  pros 
ecuted,  besides  being  the  cause  of  the  war.  And  if,  in  so  doing,  it 
should  be  objected  that  human  beings  were  brought  to  the  free  enjoy 
ment  of  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,  such  objections 
might  not  require  much  consideration. 


XII. 

But  Mr.  CAMERON  thought  differently  ;  and  on  the  8th 
of  August,  in  orders  to  Gen.  BUTLER,  he  said  : — "  It  is 
the  desire  of  the  President  that  all  existing  rights,  in  all 

o         o 

the  States,  be  fully  respected  and  maintained.  Nor 
will  you,  except  in  cases  where  the  public  good  may 
seem  to  require  it,  prevent  the  voluntary  return  of  any 
fugitive,  to  the  service  from  which  he  may  have  escaped." 
The  General  remarked  after  reading  this  despatch,  "  This 
is  too  ridiculous  to  be  laughed  at." 

To  sweep  away  the  last  doubt  on  the  subject,  a  week 
later,  Mr.  SMITH,  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  at  a  dinner 
in  Providence,  R.  I.,  said  : 

The  minds  of  the  people  of  the  South  have  been  deceived  by  the 
artful  representations  of  Democrats,  who  have  assured  them  that  the 
people  of  the  North  were  determined  to  bring  the  power  of  this  govern 
ment  to  bear  upon  them  for  the  purpose  of  crushing  out  this  institution 
of  Slavery  ;  but  the  government  of  the  United  States  has  no  more  right 
to  interfere  with  the  institution  of  Slavery  in  South  Carolina,  than  it 
has  to  intefere  with  the  peculiar  institution  of  Rhode  Island  whose 
benefits  I  have  enjoyed : — 

Referring,  we  suppose,  to  a  good  dinner  ;  nor,  from 
the  well-known  habits  of  Mr.  SMITH,  can  we  attribute 
the  utterance  of  such  a  sentiment  to  the  befuddling  in 
fluence  of  the  proverbially  fine  wine  the  gentlemen  of 
Rhode  Island  drink. 


REASONS   WHY   LINCOLN   HUNG   BACK.  359 


XIII. 

But  another,  and  still  more  decisive  endorsement  of 
the  administration  policy,  was  seen  in  the  treatment  of 
General  Fremont,  who,  on  the  3Oth  of  August,  had 
issued  the  following  tellinqr  Proclamation  from  the  West 

o  o 

ern  Department : 

The  property,  real  and  personal,  of  all  persons  in  the  State  of  Mis 
souri  wlw  shall  take  up  arms  against  the  United  States,  or  who  shall 
be  proven  to  have  taken  an  active  part  with  their  enemies  in  the  field, 
is  declared  to  be  confiscated  to  the  public  use,  AND  THEIR  SLAVES,  IF  ANY 

THEY  HAVE,  ARE  HEREBY  DECLARED  FREEMEN. 

A  shout  of  gladness  went  through  the  country  when 
FREMONT'S  act  became  known.  But  Mr.  LINCOLN  still 
hung  back, — doubtless  for  reasons  which,  to  his  usually 
sound  judgment,  were  overrulino-.  He  said  at  the 

Jo  o 

time  to  many  of  us  who  held  Mr.  SUMMER'S  views,  that 
"It  would  do  no  good  to  go  ahead  any  faster  than  the 
country  would  follow."  About  this  time  he  said  to  me, 
"You  know  the  old  Latin  motto,  festiiia  lente.  How 
do  the  Italians — those  bastard  Romans — say  the  same 
thinor  now  ?  " 

o 

"  They  have  improved  on  it,  Mr.  President;  they  say, 
andate  adaggio,  perchcJio  primooa — '  Go  slow,  because 
I  am  in  a  hurry.' ' 

"  That's  it,  exactly.  I  think  SUMNER,  and  the  rest  of 
you,  would  upset  our  apple-cart  altogether,  if  you  had 
your  way.  We'll  fetch  'em  ;  just  give  us  a  little  time. 
We  didn't  go  into  the  war  to  put  down  Slavery,  but  to 
put  the  flag  back  ;  and  to  act  differently  at  this  moment, 
would,  I  have  no  doubt,  not  only  weaken  our  cause, 
but  smack  of  bad  faith ;  for  I  never  should  have  had 


360  SUMXER   FIRMLY   FOR   EMANCIPATION. 

votes  enough  to  send  me  here,  if  the  people  had  sup 
posed  I  should  try  to  use  my  power  to  upset  Slavery. 
Why,  the  first  thing  you'd  see,  would  be  a  mutiny  in  the 
army.  No!  We  must  wait  until  every  other  means  has 
been  exhausted.  This  thunderbolt  will  keep!' 

I  replied  by  telling  a  story,  as  I  didn't  consider  that 
the  President  of  the  United  States  could  claim  any  spe 
cial  monopoly  in  that  line— 

"  That  reminds  me,  Mr.  LINCOLN,  of  a  neighbor  of 
ours  in  Connecticut,  to  whom,  one  fall,  we  gave  some 
apples,  with  directions  how  to  preserve  them.  They 
were  to  be  laid  clown  in  a  barrel  of  dry  sand,  headed  up, 
and  not  opened  till  the  4th  of  July,  the  next  year.  On 
that  morning  he  paid  us  a  visit,  and  announced  that  he 
had  opened  his  apples.  '  Well,  did  they  keep  ?  '  '  Yes,' 
said  he,  *  they  kept :  but  they  were  all  rotten  !  ' 

Mr.  LINCOLN,  who  was  kind  enough  to  laugh  at  other 
people's  jokes  as  heartily  as  he  expected  everybody  to 
laugh  at  his  own,  took  it  in  good  part,  and  replied  : 

"  The  powder  in  this  bombshell  will  keep  dry  :  and 
when  the  fuse  is  lit,  I  intend  to  have  them  touch  it  off 
themselves." 

While  Mr.  SUMNER  was  disposed  to  render  all  the  aid 
he  could  to  Mr.  LINCOLN,  he  everywhere  advocated  a 
widely  different  policy, — the  one  which  he  first  announced 
at  Worcester, — repeated  and  reiterated  in  speeches  in 
the  Senate, — in  his  daily  conversation,  and  in  his  broad 
correspondence  with  enlightened  men  all  over  Christen 
dom.  In  England,  France,  and  Germany,  his  views  were 
widely  made  known,  under  the  advocacy  of  the  foremost 
of  the  Liberals,  and  their  organs  in  England ;  by  such 
men  as  Count  GASPARIN,  and  EDOUARD  LABOULAYE,  of 
Paris ;  by  JOSHUA  R.  GIDDINGS,  our  Consul-General 


SUMNER   AGAIN   AT   COOPER   INSTITUTE.  361 

at  Montreal ;  by  CARL  SCIIURZ,  then  Minister  to  Spain  ; 
by  WILLIAM  S.  THAYER,  Consul- General  to  Egypt ; 
while  at  home,  even  such  men  as  ORESTES  A.  BROWNSON, 
the  most  vigorous  thinker  and  writer  of  the  Catholic 
Church — and,  in  fact,  from  all  orders  and  classes  of 
men,  the  Speech  at  Worcester  had  been  warmly  ap 
plauded,  and  the  course  he  was  afterwards  taking,  most 
earnestly  sanctioned. 

XIV. 

But  while  this  thing  was  slowly  righting  itself  in  the 
councils  of  the  administration,  Mr.  SUMNER'S  voice  was 
once  more  heard  in  Cooper  Institute,  where,  on  the  2/th 
of  November — still  in  the  year  1861 — he  pronounced 
another  famous  oration,  on  "The  Rebellion:  its  Origin 
and  Mainspring,"  in  which  he  once  more  surveyed  the 
whole  field.  The  key-note  of  this  speech  will  be  found 
in  the  following  passage,  which  is  one  of  the  clearest  of 
his  many  lucid  interpretations  of  the  wonderful  events 
then  transpiring  : 


The  duty  which  I  announce,  if  not  urgent  now,  as  a  MILITARY 
NECESSITY,  in  just  self-defence,  will  present  itself  constantly,  as  our 
armies  advance  in  the  Slave  States,  or  land  on  their  coasts.  If  it  does 
not  stare  us  in  the  face  at  this  moment,  it  is  because,  unhappily,  we  are 
still  everywhere  acting  on  the  defensive.  As  we  begin  to  be  success 
ful,  it  must  rise  before  us  for  practical  decision ;  and  we  cannot  avoid 
it.  There  will  be  slaves  in  our  camps,  or  within  our  extended  lines, 
whose  condition  we  must  determine.  There  will  be  slaves  also  claimed 
by  Rebels  whose  continued  chattelhood  we  should  scorn  to  recognize. 
The  decision  of  these  two  cases  settles  the  whole  great  question.  Nor 
can  the  Rebels  complain.  They  challenge  our  army  to  enter  upon 
their  territory  in  the  free  exercise  of  all  the  powers  of  war — according 
to  which,  as  you  well  know,  all  private  interests  are  subordinated  to 


362  ONE   STEP   TOWARDS   EMANCIPATION. 

the  public  safety,  which,  for  the  time,  becomes  the  supreme  law,  above 
all  other  laws,  above  even  the  Constitution  itself.  If  everywhere  under 
the  flag  of  the  Union,  in  its  triumphant  march,  Freedom  is  substituted 
for  Slavery,  this  outrageous  Rebellion  will  not  be  the  first  instance  in 
history  where  God  has  turned  the  wickedness  of  man  into  a  blessing  ; 
nor  will  the  example  of  Samson  stand  alone,  when  he  gathered  honey 
from  the  carcass  of  the  dead  and  rotten  lion. 

Events,  too,  under  Providence,  are  our  masters.  For  the  Rebels 
there  can  be  no  success.  For  them,  every  road  leads  to  disaster.  For 
them,  defeat  is  bad,  but  victory  worse  ;  for  then  will  the  North  be  in 
spired  to  sublimer  energy.  The  proposal  of  Emancipation  which  shook 
ancient  Athens  followed  close  upon  the  disaster  at  Chseronea  ;  and  the 
statesman  who  moved  it  vindicated  himself  by  saying  that  it  proceeded 
not  from  him,  but  from  Chseronea.  The  triumph  of  Hannibal  at 
Cannre  drove  the  Roman  Republic  to  the  enlistment  and  enfranchise 
ment  of  eight  thousand  slaves.  Such  is  history,  which  we  are  now  re 
peating.  The  recent  Act  of  Congress,  giving  freedom  to  slaves  em 
ployed  against  tis,  familiarly  known  as  the  Confiscation  Act,  passed 
the  Senate  on  the  morning  after  the  disaster  at  Manassas. 

XV. 

This  bill,  which  passed  the  Senate  on  the  22d  of  July, 
and  was  voted  for  by  every  Republican,  declared  : 

That  whenever  any  person,  claiming  to  be  entitled  to  the  services  or 
labor  of  any  other  person,  under  the  laws  of  any  State,  shall  employ 
such  person  in  aiding  or  promoting  any  insurrection,  or  in  resisting  the 
laws  of  the  United  States,  or  shall  permit  him  to  be  so  employed,  shall 
forfeit  all  right  to  such  services  or  labor,  and  the  person  whose  labor  or 
services  is  thus  claimed,  shall  be  discharged  thenceforth  therefrom,  any 
law  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 

n  substance,  the  same  bill  passed  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  and  the  President  signed  it  on  the  6th  of  the 
following  month. 

This  Cooper  Institute  speech  was  sent  out  on  the 
wings  of  every  wind  as  fast  as  copies  could  be  thrown 


WESTERN    TERRACE    OF    TLIE    CAPITOL. 


DEATH  OF  COL.  BAKER  AT  BALL'S  BLUFF.      363 

out  by  the  Titan  arms  of  steam,  and  had  not  a  little  to 
do  in  preparing  the  country  for  the  higher  and  more 
effective  policy  soon  to  be  adopted. 

We  are  restricted  from  indulging  in  any  description  of 
war  scenes,  for  this  book  is  a  record  of  the  deeds  of  a 
non-combatant;  one  who  nevertheless  swayed  a  mightier 
power  than  any  General  in  the  army,  or  any  minister  in 
the  Cabinet.  But  in  introducing  what  Mr.  SUMNER  said 
in  the  Senate,  when  funeral  honors  were  being  paid  to 
Col.  BAKER,  we  will  cast  a  glance  at  the  feeling  in  Wash 
ington,  on  the  night  which  followed  the  battle  of  Ball's 
Bluff 

XVI. 

It  was  a  gloomy  night  in  Washington.  One  of  the 
unexpected  and  heart-chilling  disasters  which  befell  our 
arms  in  the  early  history  of  the  war,  had  that  day  hap 
pened  at  Ball's  Bluff  (October  21,  1861).  Our  forces 
had  been  routed  and  slaughtered,  and  the  gallant 
.  Colonel  Baker,  who  had  left  the  Senate  chamber  to  lead 
his  splendid  California  Regiment  to  the  war,  had  fallen, 
dying  instantly,  pierced  at  the  same  second  by  nine  bul 
lets.  This  was  a  national  loss.  His  place  in  the  army, 
in  the  Senate,  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  of  California 
and  Oregon,  in  the  admiration  of  his  companions-in-anns 
in  Mexico,  and  in  the  realms  of  eloquence,  would  remain 
vacant.  No  man  living  was  invested  with  all  these  rare 
and  great  attributes  in  so  eminent  a  degree.  The  ap 
parently  well-founded  suspicion  that  he  had  fallen  a 
victim  to  the  foulest  treason,  subsequently  mingled  the 
intensest  indignation  with  inconsolable  grief  for  his  cruel 
and  untimely  death. 

It  was  late    in  the  evening  when  the  news  reached 


364  WASHINGTON    DURING    THE   WAR. 

Willard's;  but  a  large  crowd  was  still  there,  among 
whom,  as  always,  were  many  well-known  public  men. 
In  those  days  secession  was  more  popular  in  Washing 
ton  than  it  was  ever  to  be  again.  Not  only  was  some 
slimy  spy  lurking  within  earshot  of  every  man  worth 
tracking,  but  there  were  scores  of  strong  sympathizers 
with  the  Rebellion,  who  caught  with  avidity  the  first 
rumor  of  disaster  to  the  national  arms.* 


*  In  "My  War  Note-Book,  "  MS.,  I  find  the  following — Jan.  '62 — about  parties 
and  feeling  in  Washington— Cloaked  Foes — Croakers,  and  all  other  Secessionists. 
No  war  ever  began  with  greater  unanimity.  The  mighty  heart  of  the  people  leaped 
at  a  single  bound,  from  its  full  but  tranquil  pulsations,  into  the  wild  and  hurried  beat 
ings  of  a  continental  enthusiasm.  From  the  bleak  hill-sides  of  New  England,  from 
the  shores  of  the  ocean  lakes  of  the  North,  from  the  undulating  prairies  of  the  dis 
tant  West,  from  the  crowded  marts  of  commerce,  and  from  ten  thousand  hamlets  of 
peace  and  plenty,  a  million  men  went  rushing  to  avenge  the  insulted  honor  of  the 
nation,  and  to  plant  once  more  on  our  outer  battlements  the  fallen  standard  of  the 
Republic. 

The  flow  of  that  current  was  irresistible  ;  everything  gave  way  to  the  tramp  of 
the  embattled  hosts.  It  was  no  time  for  trifling,  nor  for  triflers.  The  secret  foe  of 
the  Union  kept  his  own  counsel.  The  men  whose  hearts  were  with  the  parricides  of 
the  Fatherland  stood  back  from  the  on-rolling  tide,  and  cursed  the  gathering  tempest. 
But  the  horde  of  politicians,  who  had  retired  in  sullen  disappointment  from  the  late 
Presidential  election,  with  hearts  all  covered  with  gangrene,  and  pockets  once  filled, 
but  now  emptied  of  the  rewards  of  corruption  and  crime, — many  of  these  seized  the 
first  chance  that  invited  to  new  scenes  of  robbery  and  peculation. 

The  politicians  of  all  parties,  en  masse,  adopted  the  war,  and  they  carried  it  on 
to  its  last  day.  They,  at  least,  "made  a  good  thing  out  of  it,"  as  they  said. 

But  this  greedy  horde  could  not  all  be  satisfied.  There  were  not  green  things 
enough  for  all  the  locusts  ;  there  were  not  lambs  enough  for  the  whole  pack  of 
wolves.  They  were  not  patriotic  enough  to  fight  anywhere  except  at  an  election  ; 
• — they  were  too  lazy  to  work,  and  they  must  eat,  and  most  of  them  drink — a  great 
deal.  There  were  not  commissions  enough  in  the  army,  nor  sinecures  in  civil  life, 
for  even  the  more  "decent"  of  this  class;  and  finally,  when  the  war  had  been 
inaugurated  into  a  grand,  solemn  fact.,  and  it  rose  up  to  the  gaze  of  the  world  in  all 
its  stupendous  proportions,  black  with  treason,  and  smoking  with  blood  unrighteously 
shed, — this  unpaid,  unbribed,  unwashed  locust-swarm  seized  the  first  occasion  to  dis 
parage  the  administration,  and  to  exaggerate  the  ill  fortune,  and  condemn  the  man 
agement  of  the  war. 

Every  disappointed  seeker  for  office  began  to  "doubt  how  the  thing  would  come 
oiu."  Day  by  day  he  shook  his  head  despairingly;  and  when  he  was  finally  told  to 
"get  out  of  the  way,  and  be  oft""  with  himself,  he  swore,  in  the  holy  indignation 


A   SECESSION   CAPITAL.  365 

Those  abettors  and  agents  of  Davis  wore  the  mask 
as  closely  as  they  could ;  and,  although  the  habitues  of 
the  capital  could  tell  them  at  a  glance,  and,  by  an  in 
stinct  of  loyalty  nearly  infallible,  know  when  one  of 

of  his  soul,  that  "  the  generals  were  all  fools,  the  Cabinet  all  rascals,  and  Old  Abe 
n  &c." 

Then  the  Secessionists  proper.  Washington  swarmed  with  them.  They  were 
never  asleep.  Well  might  a  member  of  Mr.  Davis's  cabal,  in  writing  to  a  friend 
there  (the  letter  was  intercepted),  say,  "The  Lincolnites  may  rest  assured  we  shall 
only  alarm  their  capital.  We  do  not  want  it.  It  is  of  more  use  to  us  in  their 
hands.  It  answers  all  our  purposes.  Our  friends  are  there,  and  they  are  doing  their 
work."  They  were,  and  they  found  no  lack  of  coadjutors  or  agents  in  any  depart 
ment  :  while  their  sympathizers  were  slyly  gliding  from  salon  to  salon  in  every  hotel 
where  the  best  society  held  its  conversazzioni . 

So,  too,  was  it  in  the  private  houses  of  the  rich.  Washington  had  always  been  a 
Southern  city.  Now  it  was  A  SECESSION  CAPITAL.  Its  society  had  always 
been  of  the  Southern  type.  There  were  wealth,  taste,  pride,  gallantry,  beauty, 
pleasure,  and  somewhat  of  the  abandon  which  we  recognize  the  nearer  we  go  to  the 
tropics.  Few  of  the  rich  families  of  the  North  came  here,  fewer  still  lived  here.  All 
the  richest  families  of  the  South  did  both.  Washington  they  looked  upon  as  their 
Northern  home.  Here  all  the  Foreign  Embassies  were  established,  and  spasmodic 
efforts  were  made  to  have  and  hold  a  Republican  court. 

But  over  it  all  was  spread  the  slime  of  Slavery.  The  population  was  made  up  of 
Foreign  Ministers,  Heads  of  Department,  Members  of  Congress,  Judges  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  old  dowagers  and  wives  of  absent  officers,  poor  clerks,  "poor 
whites,"  shiftless  and  lazy  negroes,  and  still  poorer  and  lazier  office-seekers. 

Once  rid  of  the  atmosphere  reeking  with  the  slave-lash  and  the  bowie-knife,  which 
the  politics  and  politicians  of  the  South  had  infused  into  Washington,  there  came 
the  first  hope  of  Society  in  the  capital.  It  was  the  only  capital  of  any  nation  with 
out  society.  I  need  not  say  that  by  society  I  mean  intercourse  between  that  body  of 
men  and  women  who  represent  the  highest  culture  and  intelligence,  the  greatest  re 
finement,  delicacy,  and  blandishments  of  women,  the  loftiest  standard  of  honor  and 
chivalry  in  men,  the  fullest  appreciation  of  learning,  art,  and  beauty  to  which  a 
nation  has  attained.  To  be  society  worthy  of  the  name,  such  reunions  must  re 
present  the  best  civilization  of  the  people.  In  later  days,  such  society  has  not 
been  seen  in  Washington.  Its  palmy  days  passed  away  with  the  graceful  regime  ot 
Ladies  Washington,  Madison,  Hamilton,  Sedgwick,  Bingham,  and  that  glorious 
company  of  superb  women  who  lent  the  fascinations  of  wit,  taste,  and  beauty  to 
adorn  the  early  clays  of  the  Republic. 

But  through  the  medium  of  such  society  as  we  have  had,  the  virus  of  practical 
secession  has  been  industriously  injected,  and  in  all  its  subtlest  forms.  It  has  worn 
chameleon  hues ;  it  has  borrowed,  for  the  time,  all  the  lights  and  shadows  that  lay 
within  its  reach. 

In  one  coterie,  severe  criticisms  were  passed  on  generals  at  the   head  of   their 


366  A  DEN   OF   SHE-VIPERS   BROKEN   UP. 

them  entered  the  room,  yet  on  some  occasions  the  sud 
den  announcement  of  bad  news  for  our  cause  threw  them 
from  their  guard,  and  a  gleam  of  fiendish  delight  flashed 
from  their  faces. 


armies ;  and,  with  all  the  eagerness  of  cormorant  birds  snuffing  the  carrion  from 
afar,  they  seized  the  first  discouraging  rumor  floating  on  the  idle  wind,  and  blew  the 
gentlest  breeze  into  a  tempest. 

If*  a  secession  woman  had  a  husband,  or  brother,  or  lover,  who  had  been  refused  a 
commission  in  the  army,  she  did  not  hesitate  to  predict  "the  final  failure  of  the 
Yankee  cause,  and  the  ultimate  triumph  of  the  chivalric  sons  of  the  South,"  "  the 
dear,  sunny  South." 

And  thus  indignant  crinoline,  which  had  flirted  in  vain  for  a  lover  by  being  patriotic, 
became  secesh  when  sailing  in  disloyal  waters. 

In  another  circle  of  men,  or  women,  or  both  (all  of  the  upper  classes,  so  called), 
serious  and  downcast  looks  were  seen,  and  to  every  new  visitor  the  "deep  and  painful 
regret"  was  expressed  "lest  Mr.  Lincoln  might  be  going  too  far  in  making  his 
arrests;"  "and  are  they  not  arbitrary?  And  then  to  take  gentlemen  from  their 
offices,  and  even  from  their  sleeping-chambers,  and  convey  them  to  a  distant  city,  and 
plunge  them  into  a  foul  prison,  tenanted  by  felons  and  haurited  by  rats  !  And  then 
think  of  General  Butler  !  that  vulgar  Yankee  !  who  published  one  of  his  tyrannical 
edicts,  and  placarded  the  insult  on  every  corner  of  the  Crescent  City,  to  the  ladies  of 
New  Orleans  " ! 

And  yet  these  same  "gentle  angels"  were  at  the  time  besieging   President  and 

Secretaries  for  a  commission  for  ,    "  a  brave  and   gallant    fellow,   \vho  had 

rendered  such  signal  services  to  the  Federal  cause,  and  longed  so  earnestly  to  put  the 
old  flag  back  where  it  once  waved  so  proudly." 

This  class  of  females  have  shown  an  alacrity  and  cleverness  in  their  management  in 
Washington  which  would  have  been  admirable  in  any  honest  cause.  But  they  were 
completely  outdone  by  the  artistes  of  the  secession  drama.  Some  few,  sprightly, 
sharp-witted,  and — as  the  world  goes — charming  women,  undertook  the  more 
difficult  parts.  They  were  in  no  hot  haste  to  win.  They  were  looking  for  the  main 
chance, — to  fail  once  or  twice,  perhaps,  but  to  win  at  last. 

Never  did  Paul  Morphy  move  chess-men  with  more  studied  care  ;  never  did  he 
conceal  more  completely  every  line  of  expression  in  hib  face ;  never  did  his  heart 
palpitate  with  half  the  excitement,  while  making  his  decisive  and  finishing  play. 

These  women  of  the  world  watched  every  expression  in  the  eyes  of  their  listeners, 
and  measured  every  gesture  they  made  before  the  men  who,  meeting  them  by  design 
or  accident,  swelled  the  retinue  of  their  impoverished  but  pretentious  court. 

Nothing  but  well-merited  severity,  visited  at  the  right  time  and  on  the  right  heads, 
broke  up  this  den  of  she-vipers  that  were  striking  their  deadly  fangs  into  the  vitals  of 
the  Republic.  There  was  squirming  and  hissing,  but  the  den  was  finally  broken  up. 

All  these  subtle  agencies  of  secession  worked  harmoniously  with  bolder  and  more 
public  demonstrations  of  disloyalty.  In  both  Houses  of  Congress,  men  no  better 
than  South  Carolina  traitors  (often  not  half  so  bad;,  and  always  more  dangerous,  un- 


THE   NEWS   AT   WILLARD'S.  367 

"  Baker  was  killed  at  Ball's  Bluff  this  afternoon." 
Never  did  news  transform  men's  countenances  quicker. 

One  class  received  it  with  blank  amazement  and  horror  ; 

the  other,  with  demoniac  exultation. 

XVII. 

Words  fell  which  neither  party  could  restrain  ;  and  the 
blood  of  the  coolest  began  to  boil  when  they  heard  the 
murdered  Baker's  name  insulted.  A  movement  was 
made  which  bolder  men  than  traitors  would  not  have  at 
tempted  to  resist.  The  villains  started  by  a  common  im 
pulse  for  the  two  doorways,  or  that  mosaic  pavement 
would  have  worn  another  color  within  ten  seconds.  A 
minute  later,  the  place  was  cleansed;  the  unclean  spirits 
had  gone  out  ! — all  but  one,  perhaps. 

A  very  red- faced,  stalwart  man,  who  had  stood  by  arid 
seen  all  that  had  been  going  on  without  saying  a  word, 
finally  remarked  with  a  pretty  determined  air,  that  "  as 
for  himself  he  didn't  care  much  about  the  fight.  He 

blushingly  reviled  the  Union,  laughed  the  Republic  to  scorn,  and  trod  the  holy 
traditions  of  our  r<w/;//07z-\VEALTH  into  the  dust. 

These  traitors  were  allowed  to  play  the  part  of  Catiline  in  open  House, — in  open 
Senate, — in  the  streets, —most  of  all,  in  that  loud-mouthed,  blatant  talk  which  is 
deemed  eloquence  in  bar-rooms,  but  bad  manners  in  decent  society,  and  treason 
anywhere. 

And  one  of  the  chief  themes  of  noisy  discourse — illegal  arrests  !  Why  illegal  ? 
Is  it  illegal  to  arrest  the  murderer  of  a  man  ?  and  is  it  not  legal  and  just  to  seize  and 
incarcerate  the  villain  who  is  contemplating  the  wholesale  murder  of  the  friends  of  the 
nation — the  defenders  of  its  Union, — the  protectors  of  its  peace, — its  nationality  and 
life?  Is  violence  to  be  the  law?  Is  the  wretch  who  brandishes  the  torch  of  the 
incendiary  recklessly,  and  scatters  fire,  arrows,  and  death  through  peaceful  and  loyal 
communities,  to  go  on  in  his  dreadful  mission  unchecked,  unmanacled,  unchained  ? 

If  such  men  escape  justice,  where  can  good  citizens  look  for  it  ? 

If  the  severity  of  Mr.  Lincoln  is  complained  of  by  treason-hatchers  or  treason- 
mongers,  how  infinite  must  be  the  all-forgiving  benevolence  of  that  much-abused 
man  !  t 

No  !  no  !  a  thousand  times  No  !     No  blood  rests  on  that  troubled  head. 


368  WHO   OWNS   THE   MISSISSIPPI. 

lived  en  the  Lower  Mississippi,  and  the  people  down  his 
way  could  take  care  of  themselves.  As  long  as  they 
owned  the  Mississippi,  the  d — d  Abolitionists  could  make 
all  the  muss  they  pleased.  We  hold  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
and  the  Northwest,  and  the  Yankees  may  be  d — d." 

A  very  tall,  lean,  awkward,  bony-looking  man  sidled 
quietly  up  to  the  Mississippian,  and,  putting  his  nose,  by 
a  stoop,  quite  close  to  his  face,  said,  in  unmistakable  far- 
Western  : 

"  Look  here,  stranger,"  and  gently  emphasizing  his 
remark  by  taking  the  stranger's  left  ear  between  his 
thumb  and  finger  ;  "  now,  yu  may  not  know«  it,  but  I 
live  in  Minnesoty,  and  we  make  that  Mississippi  water 
you  call  yourn,  and  we  kalkilate  to  use  it  some." 

The  stranger's  hand  moved  pretty  quick  for  a  side- 
pocket,  but  not  quite  quick  enough.  I  saw  a  movement, 
I  heard  a  blow,  and  the  blood  spattered  surrounders 
slightly.  In  less  time  than  such  enterprises  usually  re 
quire,  the  stranger  had  fallen  heavily  on  the  marble 
floor,  striking  his  head  against  an  iron  column,  and  re 
maining  in  a  condition  which  rendered  it  desirable  to 
have  his  friends  look  after  him,  if  he  had  any. 

The  Western  gentleman  was  congratulated, — when 
he  apologized,  "  I  didn't  want  to  hurt  the  feller,  and  I 
didn't  care  about  his  bowie-knife  going  through  me, 
nother.  But  the  tarnal  traitor  must  let  the  old  country 
alone,  and/^nickilarly  that  big  river.  We  want  to  use 
that  thar  water  out  West." 

XVIII. 

Baker's  body  was  brought  across  the  Potomac  the 
evening  he  fell.  It  rested  all  day,  and  then  by  ambu- 


BAKER'S  GRAVE  IN  CALIFORNIA.  369 

lance  was  conveyed  to  Washington,  and  carried  through 
the  same  hospitable  doorway  of  his  friend  Colonel  Webb, 
from  whose  steps  we  had  parted  with  him  as  he  mounted 
his  horse  and  gave  us  his  warm,  earnest  hand  only  two 
mornings  before !  Oh,  how  radiant  was  his  face  !  how 
athletic  and  symmetrical  his  form  !  how  unsullied  his 
ambition  !  how  pure  his  devotion  to  God  and  country  ! 

"  God  spare  his  life,  at  least !  "  we  said,  as  we  saw  him 
disappear  around  the  corner !  This  prayer  Heaven 
could  not  grant. 

The  following  day,  when  the  last  preparations  for  the 
tomb  had  been  made,  we  went  to  gaze  once  more,  and 
for  the  last  time,  on  what  of  earth  remained  in  the  form 
which  so  lately  enshrined  the  noble  spirit. 

"  Then  mournfully  the  parting  bugle  bade 
Its  farewell  o'er  the  grave." 

California  claimed  her  hero  and  statesman,  and  his 
ashes  now  repose  on  the  calm  shore  of  that  ocean  which 
washes  the  western  base  of  the  empire  for  whose  glory 
he  lived  and  died.  His  body  lies  in  Lone  Mountain 
Cemetery,  near  the  city  of  San  Francisco,  and  over  it 
should  have  risen  one  of  the  most  superb  monuments 
which  the  genius  of  Art  has  erected  to  human  great 
ness.* 

In   the  closing  paragraph  of  the  last  speech   of  Col- 

*  On  the  27th  of  March  (1874),  I  wrote  to  Hon.  A.  A.  Sargent,  Senator  from 
California,  to  learn  the  present  condition  of  Col.  Baker's  grave ;  and  in  reply,  I  re 
ceived  the  following  interesting  information  from  Mr.  Robert  J.  Stevens,  son-in-law 
of  Col.  Baker : 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  March  sist,  1874. 

MY  DEAR  SIR, — I  hasten  to  reply  to  your  note  of  this  morning,  enclosing  letter 
of  Mr.  C.  Edwards  Lester,  inquiring  about  Baker  monument.  The  plans  for  such 
monument,  very  magnificent,  and  studiously  elaborated — the  work  of  Horatio  Stone — 
were  sent  by  Rev.  H.  W.  Bellows  to  Thos.  Starr  King  at  San  Francisco  (1862), 
and  doubtless  would  have  been  in  marble  ere  this,  had  it  not  been  for  his  untimely 
24. 


370  BAKER'S  LAST  SPEECH  IN  THE  SENATE. 

onel  Baker  in  the  Senate,  provoked  by  the  insulting 
words  of  the  Catiline  whom  for  a  few  days  longer 
Heaven  had  condemned  our  patience  to  tolerate  as  a 
Senator  of  the  United  States,  the  California  Senator,  ris 
ing  in  his  place,  said,— 

There  will  be  some  graves  reeking  with  blood,  watered  by  the  tears 
of  affection.  There  will  be  some  privation.  There  will  be  some  loss 
of  luxury.  There  will  be  somewhat  more  need  of  labor  to  procure  the 
necessaries  of  life.  When  that  is  said,  all  is  said.  If  we  have  the 
country, — the  whole  country, — the  Union,  the  Constitution,  free  gov 
ernment,  with  these  will  return  all  the  blessings  of  well-ordered  civiliza 
tion.  The  path  of  the  country  will  be  a  career  of  greatness  and  of 
glory  such  as  our  fathers,  in  the  olden  time,  foresaw  in  the  dim  visions 
of  years  yet  to  come  ;  and  such  as  would  have  been  ours  to-day,  had  it 
not  been  for  the  treason  for  which  the  Senator  too  often  seeks  to  apol 
ogize. 

XIX. 

On  this  occasion  Mr.  LINCOLN  was  present.  He  en 
tered  the  Senate  Chamber,  supported  by  the  Senators 
from  Illinois,  and  was  presented  to  the  Vice-Presiclent, 
who  invited  him  to  a  seat  by  his  side  on  the  clai's  ap 
propriated  to  the  President  of  the  Senate.  Mr.  SUM 
MER  uttered  the  following  words  : 

death.  They  are  now  deposited  with  the  Society  of  California  Pioneers,  in  their  new 
building,  subject  to  my  order. 

The  grave  of  Baker  (at  Lone  Mountain)  is  principally  marked  by  the  towering 
monument  of  Broderick  a  few  yards  distant.  It  is  in  the  midst  of  a  considerable  enclos 
ure,  walled  with  concrete  handsomely  coped  with  fine  stone ;  it  has  above  it  a  slab  or 
tablet  on  columns  of  marble;  this  was  done  by  myself,  from  the  proceeds  of  his  small 
estate.  Capt.  E.  D.  Baker — the  younger  son — is  now  engaged  in  carrying  out  the 
original  idea  of  perfecting  the  enclosure  by  surmounting  the  low  wall  with  a  bronze 
railing  of  a  military  pattern,  and  it  is  his  care  that  maintains  the  flower  garden  inside 
the  wall. 

Very  truly  your  obedient  servant, 

ROBT.  J.   STEVENS. 
Hon.  A.  A.  SARGENT,  U.  S.  Senate. 


SUMNER'S  EULOGY  ON  BAKER.  371 

Mr.  President :  The  Senator  to  whom  we  now  say  farewell,  was  gen 
erous  in  funeral  homage  to  others.  More  than  once  he  held  great 
companies  in  rapt  attention  while  doing  honor  to  the  dead.  Over  the 
coffin  of  Broderick  he  proclaimed  the  dying  utterance  of  that  early 
victim,  and  gave  to  it  the  fiery  wings  of  his  own  eloquence  :  "  They 
have  killed  me  because  I  was  opposed  to  the  extension  of  slavery,  and 
a  corrupt  administration  ; "  and  as  the  impassioned  orator  repeated 
these  words,  his  own  soul  was  knit  in  sympathy  with  the  departed ; 
and  thus  at  once  did  he  win  to  himself  the  friends  of  Freedom,  though 
distant.  *  *  Baker  was  Orator  and  Soldier.  To  him  belongs  the  rare  re 
nown  of  this  double  character.  Perhaps  he  carried  into  war  something 
of  the  confidence  inspired  by  the  conscious  sway  of  great  multitudes,  as 
he  surely  brought  into  speech  something  of  the  ardor  of  war.  Call 
him,  if  you  will,  the  Rupert  of  Battle  ;  he  was  also  the  Rupert  of  De 
bate.  *  *  Child  of  Poverty  ;  he  was  brought,  while  yet  in  tender  years, 
to  Philadelphia,  where  he  began  life,  an  exile,  having  being  born  on  a 
foreign  soil.  His  earliest  days  were  passed  at  the  loom,  rather  than  at 
school ;  and  yet,  from  this  lowliness  he  achieved  the  highest  posts  of 
trust  and  honor,  being  at  the  same  time  Senator  and  General.  It  was 
the  boast  of  Pericles,  in  his  funeral  oration  in  the  Ceramicus,  over  the 
dead  who  had  fallen  in  battle,  that  the  Athenians  readily  communicated  to 
all,  the  advantages  which  they  themselves  enjoyed  ;  that  they  did  not 
exclude  the  strangers  from  their  walls,  and  that  Athens  was  a  city  open 
to  the  Human  Family.  The  same  boast  may  be  repeated  by  us,  with 
better  reason,  as  we  commemorate  our  dead  fallen  in  battle.  *  * 

In  the  Senate,  he  took  at  once  the  part  of  Orator.  His  voice  was 
not  full  and  sonorous,  but  sharp  and  clear ;  it  was  penetrating  rather 
than  commanding  ;  and  yet,  when  touched  by  his  ardent  nature,  became 
sympathetic,  and  even  musical.  Countenance,  body  and  gesture  all 
shared  the  unconscious  inspiration  of  his  voice,  and  he  went  on,  master 
of  his  audience,  and  master  also  of  himself.  All  his  faculties  were 
completely  at  command ;  ideas,  illustrations,  words,  seemed  to  come 
unbidden,  and  range  in  harmonious  forms — as  in  the  walls  of  ancient 
Thebes  each  stone  took  its  proper  place  of  its  own  accord,  moved 
only  by  the  music  of  a  lyre.  *  *  His  oratory  was  graceful,  sharp,  and 
flashing,  like  a  cimeter;  but  his  argument  was  powerful  and  sweeping 
like  a  battery. 

Not  content  with  the  brilliant  opportunities  of  this  chamber,  he  ac 
cepted  a  commission  in  the  army,  vaulting  from  the  Senate  to  the  saddle, 
as  he  had  already  leaped  from  Illinois  to  California.  *  *  His  career  as  a 


372  WHO   KILLED   BAKER. 

general  was  short,  though  shining.  *  *  He  died  with  his  face  to  the  foe — 
and  he  died  so  instantly  that  he  passed  from  the  service  of  his  country 
to  the  service  of  his  God.  It  is  sweet  and  becoming  to  die  for  country  : 
such  a  death,  sudden,  but  not  unprepared  for,  is  the  crown  of  the  pa 
triot  soldier. 

But  the  question  is  painfully  asked,  who  was  the  author  of  this 
tragedy,  now  filling  the  Senate  Chamber,  as  it  has  already  filled  the 
country,  with  mourning?  There  is  a  strong  desire  to  hold  somebody 
responsible,  where  so  many  perish  so  improfitably.  But  we  need  not 
appoint  committees  or  study  testimony,  to  know  precisely  who  took 
this  precious  life.  That  great  criminal  is  easily  detected,  still  erect  and 
defiant,  without  concealment  or  disguise.  The  guns,  the  balls,  the  men 
that  fired  them,  are  of  little  importance.  It  is  the  Power  behind  all, 
saying,  "The  State;  it  is  I,"  that  took  this  precious  life:  and  this 
power  is  Slavery.  The  nine  balls  that  slew  our  departed  brother,  came 
from  Slavery.  Every  gaping  wound  of  his  slashed  bosom,  testifies 
against  Slavery.  Every  drop  of  his  generous  blood  cries  out  from  the 
ground  against  Slavery.  The  brain  so  rudely  shattered,  has  its  own 
voice ;  and  the  tongue  so  suddenly  silenced  in  death,  speaks  now, 
with  more  than  living  eloquence.  To  hold  others  responsible  is  to  hold 
the  dwarf  agent,  and  dismiss  the  giant  principal.  Nor  shall  we  do  great 
service,  if,  merely  criticising  some  local  blunder,  we  leave  untouched 
that  fatal  forbearance  through  which  the  weakness  of  the  Rebellion  is 
changed  into  strength,  and  the  strength  of  our  armies  is  changed  into 
weakness. 

May  our  grief  to-day  be  no  hollow  pageant,  nor  expend  itself  in  this 
funeral  pomp  !  It  must  become  a  motive,  an  impulse  to  patriot  action. 
But  patriotism  itself,  that  commanding  charity,  embracing  so  many 
other  charities,  is  only  a  name,  and  nothing  else,  unless  we  resolve 
calmly,  plainly,  solemnly,  that  Slavery,  the  barbarous  enemy  of  our 
country,  the  irreconcilable  foe  of  our  Union,  the  violator  of  our  Con 
stitution,  the  disturber  of  our  peace,  the  vampire  of  our  national  life, 
the  assassin  of  our  children,  and  the  murderer  of  our  dead  Senator, 
shall  be  struck  down.  And  the  way  is  easy.  The  just  avenger  is  at 
hand,  with  weapon  of  celestial  temper  :  let  it  be  drawn.  Until  this  is 
done,  the  patriot,  discerning  clearly  the  secret  of  our  weakness,  can 
only  say,  sorrowfully — 

"  Bleed,  bleed,  poor  country  ! 
Great  tyranny,  lay  thou  thy  basis  sure, 
For  goodness  dares  not  check  thee  ! " 


CODIFYING  THE    NATIONAL   STATUTES.  373 

Mr.  SUMNER  was  bitterly  assailed  by  all  the  Pro- 
Slavery  journals  of  the  North,  for  having,  as  was  al 
leged,  "  even  in  the  burial-service  of  the  dead,  mingled 
his  sectional  hate  and  personal  wrath."  But  WILLIAM 
LLOYD  GARRISON,  in  alluding  to  this,  well  said :  "  When 
there  is  howling  in  the  pit,  there  is  special  rejoicing  in 
heaven." 


XX. 


Nearly  ten  years  before,  when  Mr.  SUMNER  first  enter 
ed  the  Senate,  he  had  presented  a  Resolution  for  a 
Revision  and  Consolidation  of  the  National  Statutes, 
and  on  many  occasions  at  succeeding  Sessions,  he 
brought  it  forward,  all  without  avail.  At  last,  in  his 
message,  December  3,  1861,  Mr.  LINCOLN  having  recom 
mended  the  measure,  Mr.  SUMNER  again  brought  for 
ward  the  old  resolution,  on  which  he  said : — •"  Some 
thing  in  earnest,  sir,  must  be  done.  The  ancient 
Roman  laws,  when  first  codified,  were  so  cumbersome 
that  they  made  a  load  for  several  camels.  Ours  swell 
to  twelve  heavy  volumes,  too  expensive  to  be  afforded 
by  any  except  the  few,  while  they  should  be  in  every 
public  library  and  law  office  throughout  the  country." 
He  advocated  the  reducing  them  to  a  single  volume,  as 
the  cumbersome  laws  of  Massachusetts  had  been,  and 
of  which  the  people  of  that  State  had  purchased  up 
wards  of  ten  thousand  copies.  "  I  hope,  sir,  there  will 
be  no  objection  founded  on  the  condition  of  the  country. 
I  do  not  forget  the  old  saying,  that  the  laws  are  silent 
in  the  midst  of  arms  ;  but  I  would  have  our  Republic 
show,  by  example,  that  such  is  not  always  the  case.  It 
will  be  something  if,  through  the  din  of  war,  this  work 


374       NO  PATENTS  FOR  COLORED  INVENTORS. 

of  peace  proceeds,  changing  the  national  statutes  into  a 
harmonious  text,  and  making  it  accessible  to  all." 

But  nothing  effectual  was  done  about  it  till  1866,  when 
the  bill  was  passed.  The  revision  and  consolidation 
were  to  be  completed  within  three  years  ;  but  the  work 
was  neglected,  although  the  salaries  were  drawn  by 
CALEB  GUSHING,  Mr.  JAMES,  of  Ohio,  and  Mr.  JOHNSTON, 
of  Pennsylvania.  In  1870,  a  supplementary  Act  was 
passed,  and  President  Grant  reappointed  Mr.  JAMES, 
and  associated  with  him  Mr.  ABBOTT,  of  New  York,  and 
Mr.  BARRINGER,  of  North  Carolina. 

XXI. 

To  the  disgrace  of  the  Republic,  three  quarters  of  a 
century  went  by  after  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution, 
before  a  colored  man  was  allowed  to  take  out  a  patent 
in  this  country  !  Mr.  Sumner  introduced  the  following 
resolution  : 

That  the  Committee  on  Patents  and  the  Patent  Office  be  instructed 
to  consider  if  any  further  legislation  is  necessary  in  order  to  secure  to 
persons  of  African  descent,  in  our  own  country,  the  right  to  take  out 
patents  for  useful  inventions,  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States. 

He  remarked  :  "  If  I  can  have  the  attention  of  the  chairman  of  the 
Committee  on  Patents,  I  will  state  to  him  why  this  resolution  is  in 
troduced.  It  has  come  to  my  knowledge  that  an  inventor  of  African 
descent,  living  in  Boston,  applied  for  a  patent,  under  the  Constitution 
and  laws  of  the  land,  and  was  refused,  on  the  ground  that  according 
to  the  DRED  SCOTT  decision,  he  is  not  a  citizen  of  the  United  States, 
and  therefore  a  patent  cannot  issue  to  him.  I  wish  the  Committee  to 
consider  whether,  in  any  way,  that  abuse  can  be  removed." 

The  resolution  was  agreed  to  unanimously ;  but  no  re 
port  was  made  by  the  Committee,  since  it  was  a  case  for 


ON   THE   SEIZURE   OF   MASON   AND    SLIDELL.  375 

interpretation,  rather  than  legislation  ;  and  the  question, 
like  that  of  passports,  was  practically  settled  soon  after, 
by  the  opinion  of  the  Attorney-General,  that  a  free  man, 
colored,  born  in  the  United  States,  is  a  citizen. 

XXII. 

Mr.  SUMNER'S.  able  speech  on  the  surrender  of  MASON 
and  SLIDELL,  the  Rebel  agents  taken  from  the  British 

£5 

mail  steamer  Trent,  must  receive  a  notice,  however  brief 
we  may  be  compelled  to  make  it. 

After  the  Senate  had  been  purged  by  the  flight  of 
some  of  the  Rebel  members,  the  quiet  retirement  of 
others,  and  the  expulsion  of  the  rest,  Mr.  SUMNER  was 
appointed  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Rela 
tions.  Little  objection  was  made  to  the  choice,  for  it  was 
universally  known  that  he  was  not  only  better  qualified 
to  fill  that  place  than  any  other  member,  but  that  his 
familiarity  with  the  condition  of  Foreign  Nations,  his 
profound  and  minute  knowledge  of  International  Law, 
and  his  clear  conception  of  the  position  of  our  govern 
ment  during  the  crisis,  towards  the  other  governments 
of  the  world, — all  stamped  him  as  the  ablest  man  in  the 
country.  It  was,  therefore,  a  most  fortunate  occurrence 
that  when  the  Trent  difficulty  came  up,  the  whole  ques 
tion  wrould  be  illuminated  by  his  knowledge,  and  en 
forced  by  his  eloquence.  Here  a  few  words  of  explana 
tion  become  necessary. 

Soon  after  the  Rebellion  began,  its  leaders  appointed 
two  of  their  ablest  men,  JAMES  M.  MASON,  of  Virginia, 
and  JOHN  SLIDELL,  of  Louisiana,  Commissioners, — the 
first  to  England,  and  the  second  to  France, — with  in 
structions  and  despatches,  the  exact  purport  of  which  did 


3/6  CIRCUMSTANCES   OF   THE   SEIZURE. 

not  become  known.  But  the  object  of  their  mission  was 
to  obtain  a  recognition  of  the  Southern  Confederacy  as 
an  independent  State,  if  possible  ;  or  in  any  event,  the 
recognition  of  the  Southern  States  as  belligerents.  The 
Rebel  ports  being  under  strict  blockade,  they  could  cross 
the  Atlantic  only  by  reaching  Havana,  where,  under  a 
neutral  flag,  they  might  get  conveyance  to  Europe.  They 
took  passage  in  the  Trent,  bound  from'  Havana  to  St. 
Thomas,  from  which  island  a  regular  line  of  British 
steamers  ran  to  England. 

o 

In  Mr.  RICHARD  H.  DANA'S  notes  to  Wheaton's  Ele 
ments  of  International  Law,  he  says  of  the  envoys : 
4<  Their  character  and  destination  were  well  known 
to  the  agent  and  master  of  the  Trent,  as  well  as  the 
great  interest  felt  by  the  Rebels  that  they  should,  and  by 
the  United  States  officials  that  they  should  not,  reach 
their  destination  in  safety." 

As  passengers,  they  were  now  on  the  high  seas. 
Within  a  few  hours'  sail  of  Nassau,  the  Trent  was 
stopped  and  searched  by  the  United  States  war  vessel 
San  Jacinto,  commanded  by  Captain  WILKES,  who, 
without  instructions,  and  entirely  on  his  own  responsi 
bility,  seized  the  two  commissioners  and  their  secretaries, 
and  returned  with  them  as  prisoners  to  the  United  States, 
while  the  Trent  was  left  to  proceed  on  her  voyage. 

XXIII. 

The  news  of  their  seizure  was  received  with  un 
bounded  sympathy  and  approbation.  The  press,  and  the 
public  men  of  the  country  generally,  not  only  gave  their 
approval,  but  even  their  praise.  On  the  ^oth  of 
November,  1861,  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  wrote  a 


RASH   PROPOSALS   IN    CONGRESS.  377 

letter  to  Capt.  WILKES,  congratulating  the  commander, 
the  officers,  and  the  crew  on  the  act,  applauding  the  in 
telligence,  ability,  decision  and  firmness  of  the  com 
mander,  and  alluding  to  his  forbearance  in  omitting  to 
capture  the  vessel  itself. 

Two  days  later — the  first  day  of  its  session — a  joint 
Resolution  was  offered  by  OWEN  LOVEJOY  in  the  House 
of  Representatives,  tendering  the  thanks  of  Congress  to 
Captain  WILKES  "  for  his  brave,  adroit,  and  patriotic 
conduct  in  his  arrest  and  detention  of  the  traitors  JAMES 
M.  MASON  and  JOHN  SLIDELL."  On  reaching  the 
Senate,  the  Resolution  was  referred  to  the  Committee 
on  Naval  Affairs,  although  Mr.  SUMNER  suggested  its 
reference  to  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations.  Mr. 

o 

HALE,  carried  away  by  his  own  generous  and  patriotic 
impulses,  went  with  the  popular  tide  against  the  sur 
render  of  the  Confederate  Commissioners,  under  any 
and  all  circumstances.  But  as  nothing  was  yet  known 
of  the  course  which  the  British  Government  would 
pursue,  Mr.  SUMNER  addressed  a  few  calm  words  to  the 
Senate,  deprecating  the  hasty  presentation  of  any  such 
Resolution,  to  which  the  Senate  listened  with  great 
respect. 

XXIV. 

The  seizure  of  the  Commissioners  was  no  sooner 
known  in  England,  than  a  burst  of  indignation  was 
witnessed,  and  by  the  first  steamer,  despatches  were 
received  from  Earl  RUSSELL  to  Lord  LYONS  the  British 
Minister  at  Washington,  dated  London,  November  3Oth, 
which  were  read  to  Mr.  Seward  on  the  igth  of  De 
cember.  A  peremptory  demand  was  made  for  the 


378  ENGLAND    BENT   ON   WAR. 

liberation  of  the  two  Commissioners  and  their  sec 
retaries,  and  an  apology  for  the  aggression  which  had 
been  committed,  with  no  further  delay  than  seven  days; 
after  which,  if  not  complied  with,  the  minister  was 
instructed  to  leave  Washington,  with  all  the  members  of 
his  legation,  taking  with  him  the  archives  of  the 
legation,  and  reporting  immediately  in  London.  He  was 
also  to  communicate  all  information  in  his  power  to  the 
British  Governors  of  Canada,  Nova  Scotia,  New  Bruns 
wick,  Jamaica,  Bermuda,  and  such  other  of  her  Ma 
jesty's  possessions  as  were  within  his  reach. 

All  this  meant  war.  England  saw  her  opportunity, 
and  she  was  determined  to  embrace  it.  The  settlement 
of  the  difficulty  was  fortunately  made  before  these  latter 
instructions  to  the  British  Minister  were  known.  But 
being  so  positive  and  peremptory,  admitting  no  pos 
sibility  of  delay,  or  time  for  arbitration,  announcing  the 
alternatives  of  instant  surrender,  with  apology,  or  hosti 
lities, — fully  showed  the  spirit  of  the  British  Government. 
We  learn  also  from  the  Annual  British  Register  for 
1 86 1,  page  254,  how  promptly  England  was  acting  up 
to  the  plan  of  immediate  war,  for  that  official  statement 
says  : 

Troops  were  dispatched  to  Canada  with  all  possible  expedition,  and 
that  brave  and  loyal  colony  called  out  its  militia  and  volunteers,  so  as 
to  be  ready  to  act  at  a  moment's  notice.  Our  dockyards  here  re 
sounded  with  the  din  of  workmen  getting  vessels  fitted  for  sea,  and 
there  was  but  one  feeling  which  animated  all  classes  and  parties  in  the 
country,  and  that  was,  a  determination  to  vindicate  our  insulted  honor, 
and  uphold  the  inviolability  of  the  national  flag. 

XXV. 

In  the  meantime,  before  Earl  RUSSELL'S  dispatch  was 


BRITISH   CONDUCT   SEVERELY   CRITICISED.  379 

received  in  Washington,  or  any  possibility  of  news  of 
the  state  of  feeling  in  England  could  have  reached  here, 
Mr.  SEWARD,  Secretary  of  State,  wrote  to  Mr.  ADAMS, 
our  Minister  at  London,  an  account  of  what  had  occurred, 
and  stated  that  "  Captain  Wilkes  acted  without  any 
instructions  from  the  government,  and  he  trusted  that 
there  would  be  no  difficulty  in  adjusting  the  matter,  if 
the  British  Government  should  be  disposed  to  meet  the 
case  in  the  same  pacific  spirit  which  animated  the 
President  and  his  administration."  By  a  singular  coin 
cidence,  this  letter  was  read  by  Mr.  ADAMS  to  Earl 
RUSSELL  on  the  very  same  day  that  Lord  LYONS  had 
read  the  English  Secretary's  demand  to  Mr.  SEWARD. 
It  was  then  in  the  power  of  Earl  RUSSELL  to  make  the 
purport  of  Mr.  SEWARD'S  letter  known,  which  would  at 
once  have  allayed  the  war  fever  which  the  British 
ministry  had  done  everything  in  their  power  to  in 
flame.  But  this  was  not  done.  In  speaking  of  this, 
Mr.  DANA  remarks : 

The  truth  seems  to  be  that,  so  long  as  they  were  uncertain  whether 
their  menace  of  war  might  not  lead  to  war,  they  could  not  afford  to 
withdraw  the  chief  motive  for  the  war  spirit  in  the  British  people,  and 
admit  that  their  warlike  demonstration  had  been  needless.  Their 
popular  support  depended  upon  the  general  belief  in  a  necessity  for 
their  having  accompanied  their  demand  with  the  preparations  and 
menace  of  war. 

This  conduct  of  the  British  government  subsequently 
cost  her  a  large  portion  of  the  respect  of  the  civilized 
world.  In  Count  de  Gasparin's  L Am'eriqite  dcvant 
I  Europe,  in  which  that  eminent  publicist  treats  the 
whole  question  with  consummate  learning  and  ability, 
he  remarks  : 

Between  great  nations,   between   sister   nations,   it  was  a  strange 


380       WHY   THE    COMMISSIONERS    WERE    SURRENDERED. 

opening.  The  usage  is  hardly  to  commence  with  an  ultimatum — that 
is,  to  commence  with  the  end.  Ordinarily,  when  there  has  been  a 
misunderstanding  or  regrettable  act,  especially  when  that  act  comes 
within  a  portion  of  the  Law  of  Nations  which  is  yet  full  of  obscurity, 
the  natural  opening  is  to  ask  for  explanations  as  to  the  intentions,  and 
for  reparation  for  what  has  been  done,  without  mixing  therewith  an 
immediate  menace  of  rupture. 

It  is  astonishing  that  a  demand  of  apology  should  figure  in  the 
original  programme,  where  it  was  entirely  out  of  place.  Seeing  such 
haste,  and  proclamation  so  lofty  of  an  exigence  above  debate  ;  seeing 
the  idea  of  an  impious  war  accepted  with  so  much  ease  by  some,  and 
with  such  joy  so  little  dissembled  by  others,  Europe  declared  without 
ambiguity  or  reserve,  that  if  England  were  not  miraculously  saved  from 
her  own  undertaking — that  if  she  went  so  far  as  to  fire  a  cannon  at  the 
North  as  an  ally  of  the  South,  she  would  tear  with  her  own  hands  her 
principal  titles  to  the  respect  of  the  civilized  world  ;  for  from  the 
moment  that  England  becomes  only  the  ally  of  Slave-traders,  she  has 
abdicated. 

But  the  wisest  council  prevailed  in  Mr.  LINCOLN'S 
Cabinet.  A  very  brief  examination  of  the  case  showed 
that  the  act  of  Captain  WILKES  could,  under  no  circum 
stances,  be  sustained ;  and  that  the  surrender  of  the 
prisoners,  with  or  without  a  demand  from  the  British 
Government,  would  be  only  in  strict  conformity  with  the 
precedents  which  had  been  established  by  our  own 
government.  Consequently,  without  any  regard  to 
popular  clamor,  Mr.  LINCOLN  peremptorily  ordered  a 
release  of  the  Rebel  Commissioners,  who  had  been 
confined  in  Fort  Warren,  in  Boston  harbor  ;  and  that 
portion  of  the  precious  freight  of  which  the  steamer 
Trent  had  been  relieved,  was  handed  over  to  the 
British  Government,  much  to  the  regret  of  the  war 
party  of  Great  Britain. 

Before  this  had  taken  place,  however,  Mr.  SUMNER, 
who  had  received  letters  from  distinguished  friends  of 


SUMMER'S  SPEECH  ON  THE  TRENT  AFFAIR.          381 

America  in  England,  read  them,  to  the  President,  and  his 
Cabinet.  One  from  RICHARD  COBDEN,  January  23, 
1862,  said: — "It  is  perhaps  well  that  you  settle  the 
matter  by  sending"  away  the  men  at  once  ;  consistently 
with  your  own  principles,  you  could  not  have  justified 
their  detention!' 

Mr.  SUMNER'S  speech  in  the  Senate — to  which  his 
position  as  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign 
Affairs  gave  additional  weight — soon  followed, „  and  it 
settled  the  opinion  of  the  world  on  that  subject  forever. 
His  mild  rebuke  of  Mr.  HALE'S  patriotic,  but  indiscreet 
motion  and  speech,  had  induced  that  Senator  to  with 
draw  the  Resolution,  for  he  had  treated  the  whole 
matter  on  a  hypothesis,  by  assuming  that  Great  Britain 
had  made  an  arrogant  demand,  when  he  knew  nothing 
of  the  sort.  "  Who  in  the  Senate,"  inquired  Mr.  SUM- 
NER,  "knows  it?  Who  in  the  country  knows  it?  I 
don't  believe  it — will  not  believe  it,  except  on  evidence. 
I  submit,  therefore,  that  the  Senator  acted  too  swiftly." 

We  need  not  make  any  quotations  from  this  ex 
haustive  speech.  The  object  of  its  delivery  was  fully 
accomplished,  and  England  had  the  mortification  of 
learning  that  we  had  acted  right,  without  any  reference 
to  her  threats  or  demands. 

There  was  no  end  to  the  congratulations  Mr.  SUMNER 

o 

received  from  his  countrymen,  and  from  the  illuminated 
statesmen  of  all  European  countries.  He  showed  me 
whole  stacks  of  letters,  journals,  reviews,  of  which  he 
remarked  :  "  The  grand  source  of  satisfaction  is,  that 
we  have  done  right :  and  I  shall  live  long  enough,  I 
hope,  to  read  these  through  some  time." 


382  CONDITION   OF   MEXICO   IN    1 862. 


XXVI. 

Mr.  WILKINSON,  of  Minnesota,  having  submitted  to 
the  Senate  unmistakable  evidence  of  disloyalty  to  the 
United  States,  on  the  part  of  Senator  BRIGHT,  of  In 
diana,  he  introduced  a  resolution  for  his  expulsion.  It 
passed  a  very  thorough  discussion,  in  which  Mr.  SUM- 
NER  took  a  prominent  part,  in  two  speeches,  January 
2  ist  and  February  4th,  which  resulted  in  the  expulsion 
of  Mr.  BRIGHT,  and  on  the  24th  of  January  the  Presi 
dent  approved  the  Resolution.  This  wound  up  the 
public  career  of  that  traitor,  who,  without  the  courage 
of  his  Confederate  associates,  added  the  meanness  of  a 
skulking  hypocrisy  to  the  infamy  of  his  treason. 

XXVII. 

We  must  glance,  although  it  be  only  for  a  moment,  at 
the  condition  of  Mexico  in  the  bejnnninqf  of  the  year 

o  o  J 

1862.  The  EMPEROR  of  FRANCE,  who  had  for  some  time 
been  indulging  in  the  visionary  dream  of  establishing 
an  Empire  in  Mexico,  had,  through  the  subtle  diplomacy 
of  his  agents,  induced  Great  Britain  and  Spain  to  unite 
with  France,  in  obtaining  redress  and  security  from 
Mexico,  for  the  subjects  of  the  three  Great  Powers, 
with  indemnity  for  claims  due  from  that  Republic.  A 
Convention  to  that  effect  was  made  in  London,  October 
31,  1 86 1,  and  a  month  later,  a  note  was  addressed 
to  the  United  States  inviting  us  to  join  in  that  de 
mand.  Of  course,  the  invitation  was  -declined.  Mr. 
CORWIN  had  been  sent,  minister  to  Mexico,  with  in 
structions  to  report  to  his  government  the  actual  con- 


MINISTER   CORWIN'S   OPINIONS.  383 

dition  of  affairs  in  that  country,  and  to  prevent  the 
Southern  Confederacy  from  obtaining  any  recognition 
there,  thus  cutting  off  all  hope  of  augmenting  the  power 
of  the  South  by  acquisition,  accompanied  with  Slavery, 
in  Mexico,  or  any  of  the  Spanish  American  Republics. 
He  was  also  to  use  all  proper  means  to  prevent  any 
European  Power  from  gaining  a  permanent  hold  on  this 
continent.  On  the  4th  of  April,  1862,  in  writing  to 
Senator  SUMNER,  Mr.  CORWIN  spoke  as  follows : 

In  the  first  object,  I  have  fully  succeeded.  The  Southern  Commis 
sioner,  after  employing  persuasion  and  threats,  finally  took  his  leave  of 
the  city,  sending  back  from  Vera  Cruz,  as  I  am  informed,  a  very 
offensive  letter  to  the  government  here.  In  obtaining  the  second  end, 
I  have  had  more  difficulty.  *  *  *  If  the  French  attempt  to  conquer 
this  country,  it  is  certain  to  bring  on  a  war  of  two  or  three  years'  dura 
tion.  The  gorges  of  the  mountains,  so  frequent  here,  would  afford  to 
small  detachments,  stronger  holds  than  any  position  fortified  by  art ; 
and  the  Mexicans  have  a  strong  hatred  of  foreign  rule,  which  animates 
the  whole  body  of  the  people.  I  trust  our  government  will  remonstrate 
firmly  against  all  idea  of  European  conquest  on  this  continent,  and  in 
such  time  as  to  have  its  due  influence  on  the  present  position  of  France 
in  Mexico. 

But  I  am  satisfied  this  danger  may  be  avoided  by  the  pecuniary  aid 
proposed  by  the  present  treaty  with  us,  and  the  united  diplomacy  of 
England,  Spain,  and  the  United  States.  If  these  means  are  not  promptly 
and  energetically  applied,  a  European  power  may  fasten  itself  upon 
Mexico,  which  it  will  become  a  necessity  with  us  at  no  distant  day  to 
dislodge.  To  do  this,  in  the  supposed  event,  would  cost  us  millions, 
twenty  times  told,  more  than  we  now  propose  to  lend  upon  undoubted 
security. 

When  the  ambitious  designs  of  NAPOLEON  became 
fully  known,  England  and  Spain  withdrew.  The  Em 
peror  landed  a  large  army  on  the  Mexican  soil,  and  in 
the  prosecution  of  the  macl  enterprise,  ultimately  wit 
nessed  the  defeat  of  his  object.  The  brave  and  virtuous 


384  END    OF   AX    INSANE   EXPEDITION. 

MAXIMILIAN,  whom  he  had  placed  upon  the  recon 
structed  throne  of  Mexico,  was  brought  to  a  just  and 
ignominious  death, — many  thousands  of  the  finest  sol 
diers  in  France  left  their  bones  on  the  soil ; — her 
generals  reaped  no  laurels  in  the  field  ; — her  ministers 
gained  no  fame  in  the  cabinet ; — an  enormous  amount  of 
treasure  was  uselessly  expended  ;  and  Napoleon  dis 
covered,  only  too  late,  that  in  the  insane  expedition,  he 
had  found  his  Moscow,  from  which  dated  the  beginning 
of  the  decline  of  his  power,  which  was  effectually  extin 
guished  a  few  years  later  at  Sedan. 

On  the  1 7th  of  December,  1861,  the  President,  in  a 
message,  transmitted  to  the  Senate  a  draft  of  a  Conven 
tion  with  the  Republic  of  Mexico,  in  pursuance  of  the 
plan  suggested  by  Mr.  CORWIN.  Mr.  SEWARD  ear 
nestly  recommended  the  proposition  of  the  President,  but 
the  following  resolution  finally  passed  that  body : 

That,  in  reply  to  several  messages  of  the  President,  with  regard  to  a 
treaty  with  Mexico,  the  Senate  express  the  opinion  that  it  is  not  ad 
visable  to  negotiate  a  treaty  that  will  require  the  United  States  to 
assume  any  portion  of  the  principal  or  interest  of  the  debt  of  Mexico, 
or  that  will  require  the  concurrence  of  the  European  powers. 

XXVIII. 

Another  infamous  law  had  stood  upon  the  statute 
books  of  the  United  States,  from  March  3,  1825,  for 
more  than  a  third  of  a  century.  It  was  as  follows  : 

That  no  other  than  a  free  white  person  shall  be  employed  in  convey 
ing  the  mail,  and  any  contractor  who  shall  employ,  or  permit  any  other 
than  a  free  white  person  to  carry,  the  mail,  shall  for  every  such  offence, 
incur  a  penalty  of  twenty  dollars. 

This  bill  was  to  blacken  the  statute  book  no  longer. 
On  the  1 8th  of  March,  1862,  Mr.  SUMNER  asked  and 


A   PROPHETIC   LETTER.  385 

obtained  the  unanimous  consent  of  the  Senate  to  intro 
duce  a  bill  to  remove  all  disqualifications  of  color,  in 
carrying  the  mails.  It  was  reported  back  on  the  27th  of 
the  month,  by  Mr.  COLLAMER,  of  Vermont,  Chairman 
of  the  Committee  on  Post-offices,  without  amendment, 
and  passed.  But  in  the  House,  it  was  laid  on  the  table, 
by  a  large  majority,  on  motion  of  Mr.  COLFAX.  It  was 
renewed,  however,  by  Mr.  SUMNER,  in  the  next  Congress, 
and  became  a  laAv. 

The  original  of  the  subjoined  letter  from  Senator 
Sumner,  with  the  italics  marked  by  its  author,  is  among 
the  papers  left  by  the  late  Count  Gurowski.  It  shows 
the  clear  prophetic  vision  of  the  writer. 

WASHINGTON,  8  Jan.,  '61. 

MY  DEAR  COUNT  :  You  will  pardon  my  seeming  negligence,  and 
believe  that  whatever  you  write  always  interests  and  pleases  me. 

Your  book,  I  find  on  inquiry,  has  been  received  by  many  Senators, 
who  speak  of  it  warmly.  I  hope  that  the  publishers  speak  as  well.  I 
wish  you  were  here,  that  I  might  have  the  advantage  of  your  conversa 
tion  and  of  your  overflowing  knowledge  and  sympathy,  too.  Daily  and 
hourly  I  plead  for  firmness  against  concession  in  any  form. 

Sunday  evening  I  had  a  visit  from  Thurlow  Weed  and  Seward.  The 
former  told  me  that  he  found  himself  "  alone."  Nobody  united  with 
him.  I  rejoiced.  Aspinwall  and  Corning  are  here  for  the  same  object. 
They  urge  that  we  cannot  have  a  united  North  unless  we  make  an  effort 
for  adjustment ;  to  which  I  reply  :  "  We  have  the  verdict  of  the  people 
last  November — that  is  enough." 

But  these  compromisers  do  not  comprehend  the  glory  of  a  principle. 
Per  is  sent  les  colonies  plutot  qit  un  principe  !  That  exclamation  exalts 
a  period  which  has  many  things  to  be  deplored. 

The  slave  States  are  mad.  They  will  all  move.  Nothing  now  but 
abject  humiliation  on  the  part  of  the  North  can  stay  them.  Nobody 
can  foresee  precisely  all  that  is  in  the  future,  but  I  do  not  doubt  that  any 
conflict  will  precipitate  the  doom  of  slavery.  It  will  probably  go  down.: 
in  blood. 

Bon  soir !  je  vous  embrasse  de  tout  mon  cceur. 

Ever  yours,  CHARLES  SUMNER. 

25 


386       SLAVERY   ABOLISHED   IN   DISTRICT   OF   COLUMBIA. 

XXIX. 

The  next  measure  that  came  up  before  the  Senate, 
on  which  Mr.  SUMNER  spoke  at  any  length,  was  the  bill 
for  the  Abolition  of  Slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia, 
March  31,  1862.  On  the  i6th  of  April  it  was  approved 
by  the  President,  who  sent  a  message  expressing  gratifi 
cation  "  that  the  two  principles,  compensation  and  coloni 
zation,  are  both  recognized  and  practically  applied  in  the 
act."  The  bill  had  been  introduced  into  the  Senate  by 
Mr.  WILSON,  to  provide  for  a  commission  to  appraise 
the  claims  on  account  of  the  slaves  liberated,  limiting 

o 

their  allowance,  in  the  aggregate,  to  an  amount  equal  to 
three  hundred  dollars  a  slave,  and  appropriating  one 
million  dollars  to  pay  loyal  owners  ;  to  which  Mr.  Doo- 
LITTLE  added  the  amendment,  appropriating  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars  for  the  colonization  of  slaves  who  desired 
to  emigrate  to  Hayti  or  Liberia.  "  For,"  as  Mr.  LINCOLN 
said  of  himself,  "  I  am  so  far  behind  the  Sumner  light 
house,  that  I  still  stick  to  my  old  colonization  hobby." 
But  Mr.  SUMNER,  who  preferred  half  a  loaf  to  no 
bread,  was  willing  to  vote  money  for  emancipation,  as  a 
ransom.  While  he  disclaimed  the  title  of  the  master  to 
any  remuneration  whatever,  he  regarded  it  as  a  good 
beginning,  of  which  he  prophetically  saw  a  better  end. 
It  was  a  blow  levelled  at  Slavery  outside  of  the  District, 
as  well  as  in  it,  and  unmistakably  proclaimed  the  power 
:and  duty  of  Congress  over  the  whole  subject.  Con 
gratulations  came  from  all  sides,  but  the  best  was  from 
FREDERICK  DOUGLASS,  himself  a  redeemed  slave.  He 
wrote  to  Mr,  SUMNER  : 

I  want  only  a  moment  of  your  time  to  give  you  my  thanks  for  your 
great  speech  in  the  Senate  on  the  Bill  for  the  Abolition  of  Slavery  in 


SUMNER'S  BRIGHT  AND  DARK  HOURS.  387 

the  District  of  Columbia.  I  trust  I  am  not  dreaming  ;  but  the  events 
taking  place  seem  like  a  dream.  If  slavery  is  really  dead  in  the  Dis 
trict  of  Columbia,  and  merely  waiting  the  ceremony  of  "  Dust  to  dust " 
by  the  President,  to  you,  more  than  to  any  other  American  statesman, 
belongs  the  honor  of  this  great  triumph  of  justice,  liberty,  and  sound 
policy.  I  rejoice  for  my  own  freed  brothers, — and,  sir,  I  rejoice  for  you. 
You  have  lived  to  strike  down  in  Washington  the  power  that  lifted  the 
bludgeon  against  your  own  free  voice.  I  take  nothing  from  the  good 
and  brave  men  who  have  co-operated  with  you.  There  is,  or  ought  to 
be,  a  head  to  every  body ;  and  whether  you  will  or  not,  the  slaveholder 
and  the  slave  look  to  you  as  the  best  embodiment  of  the  Anti-Slavery 
idea  now  in  the  councils  of  the  nation.  May  God  sustain  you  ! 

I  shall  never  forget  how  Mr.  SUMNER'S  face  brightened, 
and  his  eyes  swam  in  the  luxury  of  gratitude,  whenever 
he  received  such  letters,  exclaiming  with  fervor,  as  he 
rose  and  shook  himself,  walking  the  floor — "  Thank  God 
we  have  such  opportunities  to  do  good  !  And  where  on 
earth  will  you  find  hearts  that  so  readily  melt  with  gra 
titude,  as  in  the  negro  breast  ?  "  And  yet  his  severest 
trial,  during  these  days,  was  in — as  he  expressed  it — 
"  screwing  Old  Abe  up  to  the  sticking  point."  And 
then,  with  considerable  impatience,  he  broke  out,  "  How 
slow  this  child  of  Freedom  is  being  born  !  If  other 
children  found  as  much  difficulty  in  getting  into  the 
world,  the  earth  would  be  depopulated  with  this  genera 
tion.  The  idea  of  a  man  having  to  buy  himself!  We 
voted  the  money  however,  only  as  a  ransom,  as  nations 
redeemed  their  citizens  from  Algerine  slavery.  But  this 
business  of  buying  men  into,  or  out  of  slavery  will 
cease  very  soon." 

XXX. 

In  the  time  of  the  Caesars,  as  the  traveler  from  the 
East   approached     Rome,    over    the   Appian  Way,    he 


388  RECOGNITION   OF    LIBERIA   AND    HAYTI. 

passed  milestones — some  of  which  are  still  standing", 
after  two  thousand  years — telling  him  how  near  he  was 
to  the  Eternal  City.  So,  too,  those  who  read  our  writ 
ings  of  this  period,  will  trace  with  interest  the  Measures 
enacted  by  our  government,  which  successfully  marked 
the  progress  we  were  then  making  towards  Universal 
Liberty.  One  of  them  will  be  an  Act  passed  the  3d  of 
June,  1862,  recognizing  the  Independence  of  Hayti  and 
Liberia.  Although  it  seemed  to  concern  but  a  handful 
of  people,  on  the  distant  African  coast,  founded  by 
American-born  citizens,  and  fostered  by  the  benevolence 
of  the  generous  and  the  good  in  our  own  country,  and 
which  had,  above  all  other  communities  on  the  earth,  the 
first  claim  to  our  recognition  and  friendship ;  and  the 
other,  a  people  who  had  successfully  achieved  their  inde 
pendence  in  our  neighborhood,  striking  for  the  same  holy 
cause  of  Liberty  which  our  fathers  struck  for ;  and 
although  they  had  both  vainly  looked  for  official  recogni 
tion  by  our  Republic,  yet  the  taint  of  color  was  on  them 
—the  curse  of  caste  shut  them  out  from  the  pale  of  our 
political  charity,  although  they  had  encountered  no  such 
difficulty  with  any  of  the  other  nations  of  the  globe. 

Feeling  that  this  disgrace  had  rested  long  enough  on 
our  government,  Mr.  LINCOLN,  in  his  first  Annual  Mes 
sage,  had  proposed  the  recognition  of  the  independence 
and  sovereignty  of  Hayti  and  Liberia.  Of  course,  it 
encountered  the  bitter  opposition  of  every  Pro- Slavery 
Senator,  and  every  hater  of  the  colored  race.  A  reso 
lution  had  been  introduced  into  the  Senate  as  long  ago 
as  July  ist,  1836;  and  again  in  January  and  March  of 
the  following  year.  But  with  the  exception  of  that 
venerable  Sage  and  apostle  of  Liberty,  JOHN  QUINCY 
ADAMS,  scarcely  a  voice  was  heard  in  either  House  in 


VIOLENT   OPPOSITION   FROM   THE   SOUTH.  389 

advocacy  of  the  measure.  Mr.  HAMILTON,  of  South 
Carolina,  declared  that  Haytien  independence  could  not 
be  tolerated  in  any  form ;  and  his  colleague,  Mr.  HAYNE, 
not  only  deprecated  any  such  recognition,  but  demanded 
that  our  ministers  in  South  America  and  Mexico,  should 
protest  against  the  independence  of  Hayti.  Mr.  LEGARE, 
also  of  the  same  State,  opposed  it  violently.  He  was 
an  accomplished  scholar ;  but  even  the  amenities  of 
literary  culture  had  not  gained  any  covert  in  his  breast, 
where  sympathy  with  black  men  struggling  for  elevation 
could  find  shelter.  He  said  that  the  memorial  originated 
in  a  design  to  revolutionize  the  South,  and  convulse  the 
Union.  "  As  sure  as  you  live,  sir,"  was  his  prophecy, 
"  if  this  course  is  permitted  to  go  on,  the  sun  of  this 
Union  will  go  down  in  blood,  and  go  down  to  rise  no 
more.  I  will  vote  unhesitatingly  against  nefarious  de 
signs  like  these.  They  are  treason  !  " 

Better  things  than  those  surely  were  to  be  hoped  from 
Mr.  BENTON,  of  Missouri,  who  prided  himself  on  being 
considered  the  "  illuminated  "  Senator.  Even  he  used 
this  language  :  "  The  peace  of  eleven  States  in  this 
Union  will  not  permit  the  fruits  of  a  successful  negro 
insurrection  to  be  exhibited  among  them."  And  all  this 
while  the  sacred  form  of  Liberty  lay  crushed  under  the 
wheels  of  the  Slavery  Juggernaut.  But  the  victims  of 
this  national  idol  were  not  to  be  forever  offered  up— 
these  immolations  in  our  Temple  dedicated  to  the  God 
dess  of  Liberty  were  to  cease. 

XXXI. 

On  the  23d  of  April,  on   motion   of  Mr.  SUMNER,  the 
Senate  proceeded  to  consider  the  bill,  when  he  delivered 


390  AN   EVENING   WITH   THE   HAYTIEN   MINISTER. 

an  eloquent  and  convincing  speech.  It  was  the  first  ar 
gument  worthy  of  the  name  ever  uttered  in  either  House 
on  that  subject,  and  it  did  its  work  so  effectually,  that  it 
proved  to  be  the  last  that  was  ever  to  be  required.  Com 
missioners  were  appointed  by  the  three  governments, 
and  diplomatic  intercourse  was  at  once  instituted. 

On  the  arrival  of  the  Minister  of  the  Republic  of 
Hayti,  I  sought  an  early  opportunity  of  making  his  ac 
quaintance  ;  and  with  a  letter  of  introduction  from  Mr. 
Sumner  I  called  at  his  residence,  which  had  been  just 
prepared  for  the  reception  of  himself  and  family.  I 
\vas  politely  received  by  his  secretary, — a  handsome  and 
gentlemanly  young  man — who  said  in  fine  English,  "  The 
minister  will  soon  come  in.  He  does  not  speak  English 
well,  but  of  course  you  are  so  recently  from  Europe 
you  must  speak  French  and  Italian — one  of  which  is 
his  mother  tongue,  and  the  other  his  favorite."  I  was 
glad,  for  it  happened  also  to  be  mine. 

In  a  moment  the  gentleman  entered  with  Mr.  Sum- 
ner's  letter  in  one  hand,  and  taking  mine  warmly  with 
the  other,  led  me  to  a  sofa.  In  my  Note-book  of  the 
War  MS.,  I  fined  the  following  entry  : 

I  passed  a  most  charming  evening  with  the  Haytien 
Minister  —  no  one  being  present  but  his  Secretary. 
Having  just  moved  into  a  new  house — a  modest  but 
nice  one — in  the  new  part  of  the  town  to  the  North,  he 
apologized  for  being  non  ancora  pcrfcttamcnte  stabilito, 
although  the  parlor  was  furnished  in  exquisite  taste. 
He  was  sorry  that  he  did  not  yet  feel  quite  as  much  at 
home  with  our  language  as  he  soon  hoped  to,  and  so 
we  dropped  into  Italian.  He  told  me  more  about  his 
native  Island  than  I  had  ever  learned  from  all  other 
sources ;  and  as  I  desired  it,  he  spoke  freely  about  him- 


A   DESCRIPTION   OF   HIM.  391 

self.  His  ancestors  had  been  slaves.  He  had  been 
early  sent  to  Europe  for  his  education,  and  entering"  the 
public  service  on  his  return,  he  was  gratified  with  the 
appointment  to  Washington  on  the  recognition  of  his 
Republic.  He  spoke  with  veneration  of  Mr.  LINCOLN, 
and  the  hearty  reception  he  had  given  him — but  of  Mr. 
SUMNER  he  spoke  with  the  deepest  affection.  "  The 
name  of  no  American,"  he  said,  "is  so  dear  to  the  Hay- 
tien  people  as  CHARLES  SUMNER — I  cannot  even  except 
Washington  himself.  He  left  us  only  his  grand  ex 
ample.  But  Signor  CARLO  IL  SENATORS  !  why,  his  picture 
is  in  every  cottage  in  Hayti.  He  has  done  everything 
for  us."  Two  hours  flew  by  before  I  knew  it.  We 
talked  of  what  the  Italians  were  doing — of  the  progress 
of  the  Democratic  principle  in  Europe — of  Art,  Litera 
ture, — everything.  Young  as  he  is — and  he  cannot  be 
over  27 — he  has  not  only  been  superbly  educated,  but 
he  has  done  a  great  deal  of  hard  thinking.  The  study 
of  government,  especially  the  history  of  Free  States, 
seems  to  have  had  for  him  a  fascination ;  \vhile  his  fami 
liarity  with  our  history  and  institutions  is  as  striking 
as  De  Tocqueville's  or  Chevalier's.  I  came  away  alto 
gether  captivated.  He  is  the  most  accomplished  and 
gentlemanly  foreigner  I  have  met  in  Washington  among 
the  whole  diplomatic  corps.  How  my  cheek  burned 
when  I  thought  that  at  no  respectable  Hotel  could  he 
have  been  received  as  a  guest !  Demon,  darkest  and 
meanest  of  all  the  hell-born  crew  !  Thy  name  is  Caste  ! 
The  minister  is  just  above  the  medium  height — finely 
formed,  brilliant  face,  the  complexion  being  rather  dark, 
but  his  cheek  glowing  with  the  warm  tint,  and  his  eye 
with  the  liquid  beauty  of  the  Creole — his  voice  soft,  but 
clear  and  earnest;  easy  in  manner,  and  what  the  Italians 


392          TREATY   FOR   SUPPRESSING   THE   SLAVE   TRADE. 

so  well  call  simpatico — his  dress  ?  well,  he  was  so  well 
dressed  I  don't  remember  what  he  had  on.  His  acquaint 
ance  is  a  real  acquisition  in  the  dreadful  rowdyism  of 
this  city,  which  has  become  disgusting  during  the  war. 

XXXII. 

In  the  early  part  of  1862,  after  a  conference  between 
Mr.  SEWARD  and  Senator  SUMNER,  negotiations  were 
opened,  and  finally  a  Treaty  concluded  with  Great  Brit 
ain,  for  a  mutual  and  restricted  right  of  search,  and 
mixed  courts,  with  a  view  to  the  suppression  of  the 
Slave-trade.  It  was  signed  by  Mr.  SEWARD  and  Lord 
LYONS  oh  the  ;th  of  April.  On  the  24th  of  that  month 
Mr.  SUMNER  introduced  a  Resolution  of  ratification,  ac 
companied  by  so  convincing  a  speech,  that  the  ayes  and 
noes  were  dispensed  with,  and  the  resolution  agreed  to, 
without  a  dissenting  vote. 

He  had  opened  his  speech  by  alluding  to  the  fact  that 
NATHANIEL  GORDON, — a  Slave-trader,  commanding  the 
Slave-ship  Erie, — had  been  executed  in  New  York  on 
the  2ist  of  the  preceding  February,  "  being  the  first  in 
our  history  to  suffer  for  this  immeasurable  crime.  Eng 
lish  lawyers,"  he  continued,  "  dwell  much  upon  treason 
to  the  King,  which  they  denounce  in  a  term  borrowed 
from  the  ancient  Romans — /ore-majesty  ;  but  the  Slave- 
trade  is  treason  to  man,  being  nothing  else  than  Icse- 
humanity.  Much  as  I  incline  against  capital  punishment, 
little  as  I  am  disposed  to  continue  this  barbarous  pen 
alty  unworthy  of  a  civilized  age,  I  see  so  much  good  in 
this  example,  at  the  present  moment,  that  I  can  reconcile 
myself  to  it  without  a  pang.  Clearly,  it  will  be  a  warning 
to  Slave-traders,  and  also  notice  to  the  civilized  world 


SUMNER   MILESTONES.  393 

that  at  last  we  are  in  earnest.  While  it  helps  make  the 
Slave-trade  detestable,  crime  is  seen  in  the  punishment ; 
and  the  gallows  sheds  upon  it  that  infamy  which  nothing 
short  of  martyrdom  in  a  good  cause  can  overcome." 

He  went  on  to  show  that  our  flag  had  been  dese 
crated  by  this  hateful  commerce — that  ships  equipped  in 
New  York  were  tempted  by  its  cruel  gains.  But  to 
stop  this,  had  been  found  impossible  while  Slavery 
prevailed  in  the  National  Government.  Here  was  an 
other  milestone  set  up,  that  the  future  traveler  will 

discern. 

XXXIII. 

Still  another  milestone  was  about  to  be  planted.  Al 
though  the  Generals  in  our  army  were  continually 
receiving  most  valuable  information  from  fugitive  slaves, 
and  many  a  disaster  was  prevented,  as  well  as  many  a 
success  obtained  through  their  information  of  the  posi 
tions,  movements,  and  plans  of  the  Rebels,  as  well  as 
from  their  indispensable  services  as  faithful  and  intelli 
gent  guides, — still,  the  prevailing  sentiment  in  the  army 
was  for  the  rendition  of  such  fugitives.  Slave-holders 
were  allowed  to  enter  the  camps  of  our  Generals,  and 
search  private  quarters  of  officers  for  slaves.  This  was 
particularly  the  case  under  General  HOOKER'S  command  ; 
while  General  McCooK's  conduct,  by  way  of  rendering 
extraordinary  facilities  to  Slave-hunters,  was  widely  ap 
plauded  by  a  journal  at  Nashville ;  and  in  many  other 
instances.  Yet  these  officers  could  all  plead,  in  behalf 
of  their  conduct,  the  infamous  "  Order  No.  3,"  of  Major- 
General  HALLECK,  in  which  he  said : 

We  will  prove  to  them — Slave-holders — that  we  come  to  restore,  not 
to  violate,  the  Constitution  and  the  laws.  *  *  *  It  does  not  belong  to 
the  military  to  decide  upon  the  relation  of  master  and  slave  :  such  ques- 


394  SFEECH   AGAINST   RENDITION   OF   FUGITIVES. 

tions  must  be  settled  by  the  civil  courts.  No  fugitive  slaves  will, 
therefore,  be  admitted  within  our  lines  or  camps,  except  when  specially 
ordered  by  the  General  commanding. 

In  HORACE  GREELEY'S  American  Conflict,  the  author 
well  says  : 

Never  was  a  therefore  more  misplaced.  How  were  the  persons  pre 
senting  themselves  adjudged  to  be  or  known  as  fugitive  slaves  ?  Plainly, 
by  the  color  of  their  skins,  and  that  only.  The  sole  end  of  this  regu 
lation  was  the  remanding  of  all  slaves  to  their  masters, — seven-eighths  of 
whom  were  most  envenomed,  implacable  Rebels — by  depriving  them 
of  refuge  within  our  lines  from  those  masters'  power. 

XXXIV. 

In  the  same  reliable  work,  volume  2,  pages  241-256, 
will  be  found  an  extended,  but  very  humiliating  account 
of  this  impolitic  and  inhumane  policy.  On  the  ist  of 
May,  1862,  Senator  WILSON  introduced  a  resolution  of 
inquiry  on  this  subject,  which  was  enforced  by  a  strong 
speech  of  Mr.  SUMNER,  closing  in  the  following  words  : 

How  often  must  I  repeat,  that  Slavery  is  the  constant  Rebel  and 
universal  enemy?  It  is  traitor  and  belligerent  together,  and  is  always 
to  be  treated  accordingly.  Tenderness  to  Slavery  now,  is  practical 
disloyalty,  and  practical  alliance  with  the  enemy.  Believe  me,  sir, 
against  the  officers  named  I  have  no  personal  unkindness  ;  I  should 
much  prefer  to  speak  in  their  praise.  But  I  am  in  earnest.  While  I 
have  the  honor  of  a  seat  in  the  Senate,  no  success,  no  victory,  shall  be 
apology  or  shield  for  a  General  who  insults  human  nature.  From  the 
midst  of  his  triumphs,  I  will  drag  him  forward  to  receive  the  con 
demnation  which  such  conduct  deserves. 

This  movement  ended  in  something  effectual.  The 
Bill  for  Confiscation  and  Liberation  being  passed,  was 
approved  on  the  i;th  of  July,  providing  for  the  freedom 
of  the  slaves  of  Rebels  ;  and  all  the  enactments  on  this 
subject  were  embraced  by  the  President  in  the  First 
Proclamation  of  Emancipation,  September  22,  1862. 


THE   BATTLE-FLAG   RESOLUTION.  395 

XXXV. 

As  early  as  May  8,  1862,  Mr.  SUMNER  introduced  a 
Resolution  which  was  the  beginning-  of  a  policy  on  his 
part  steadily  pursued  to  the  end,  prohibiting  the  names 
of  victories  over  fellow-citizens  from  being  inscribed  on 
the  regimental  colors.  It  ended  years  after,  as  all  the 
world  knows — and  Massachusetts  too  well — in  covering 
that  State  with  dishonor,  and  her  Senator  with  undying 
glory  ; — her  vote  of  censure  was  a  stain  which,  however, 
she  was  able  to  wipe  out  before  her  great  Senator  was 
called  to  his  reward. 

After  the  capture  of  Williamsburg,  May  6th,  General 
MCCLELLAN  having,  in  a  dispatch,  asked  of  the  War  De 
partment  whether  he  would  be  authorized  in  following 
the  example  of  other  Generals,  to  direct  the  names 
of  battles  to  be  placed  on  the  colors  of  regiments,  Mr. 
SUMNER'S  Resolution  was  : — "  That  in  the  efforts  now 
making  for  the  restoration  of  the  Union,  and  the  estab 
lishment  of  peace  throughout  the  country,  it  is  inexpe 
dient  that  the  names  of  victories  obtained  over  our 
fellow-citizens,  should  be  placed  on  the  regimental 
colors  of  the  United  States."  But  Mr.  HALE  objected 
to  its  consideration,  and  it  was  postponed.  A  few  days 
later,  even  Mr.  WILSON  introduced  a  joint  resolution  to 
authorize  the  President  to  permit  regiments  of  the  vol 
unteer  forces  to  inscribe  on  their  flags  the  names  of 
battles  in  which  such  regiments  had  been  engaged. 
But  fortunately  for  Mr.  WILSON,  as  well  as  Mr.  HALE, 
the  whole  matter  was  dropped. 

Mr.  SUMNER'S  movement,  however,  was  fully  appre 
ciated  by  people  whose  hearts  were  exactly  in  the  right 
place,  and  in  sound  condition.  But  it  received  one 


396  SUMNER   ENDORSED   BY   GEN.    SCOTT. 

endorsement  worth  a  lifetime  to  win,  for  it  came  from 
that  great  General  and  patriot  who  was  then  putting 
forth  his  last  and  best  efforts  for  his  country  in  the  midst 
of  her  trouble.  In  his  Autobiography,  volume  i,  page 
190,  Lieut.-Gen.  SCOTT  left  these  imperishable  words  : 

t 
It  had  been  proposed,  without  due  reflection,  by  one  of  our  gallant 

commanders  engaged  in  the  suppression  of  the  existing  Rebellion,  to 
place  on  the  banners  of  his  victorious  troops,  the  names  of  their  bat 
tles.  The  proposition  was  rebuked  by  the  Resolution  submitted  by 
the  Hon.  Mr.  SUMNER,  which  was  noble,  and  from  the  right  quarter. 

XXXVI. 

On  the  1 2th  of  May,  and  again  on  the  28th  of  June, 
Mr.  SUMNER  attempted  in  vain  to  get  a  Resolution 
passed  providing  that  "  In  all  judicial  proceedings  to 
confiscate  the  property  and  free  the  slaves  of  Rebels, 
there  shall  be  no  exclusion  of  any  witnesses  on  account 
of  color." 

He  had  already  made  two  efforts  against  the  exclu 
sion  of  witnesses  under  this  pretext.  But  this  states 
man,  although  ever  vigilant,  was  ever  patient  in  hope. 
He  knew,  as  well  as  any  old  prophet  of  Judea  forecast 
the  future,  that  the  day  of  absolute  emancipation  for  a 
whole  race  was  sure  to  dawn  ;  and  so  on,  through  the 
shadows,  as  the  light  came  streaming  in,  he  beckoned 
every  ray,  as  a  harbinger  from  the  east,  announcing  the 
approach  of  the  sun.* 

*  In  reply  to  the  question,  "  What  will  be  the  end  of  all  this  ?  "  from  a  Senator 
whose  heart  was  only  half  with  us  at  this  time,  I  addressed  the  following  reply — 
which  Mr.  Sumner  so  warmly  approved  of.  I  will  reproduce  it  here. 

"  How  is  it  to  end?" 

As  ail  the  other  great  wrongs  of  the  world  have  ended, — not  in  blood  merely  ;  for 


ANSWER   TO    "HOW   WILL   ALL   THIS   END?"  3Q/ 

But  by  this  time,  Mr.  SUMNER  had  grown  strong 
enough  to  set  up  milestones  for  himself,  without  any 
help  from  the  Senate  ;  and  hereafter  we  may  call  these 
rejected  resolutions  the  SUMNER  MILESTONES,  and  not 
the  Senatorial.  They  marked  the  road  to  Freedom. 

XXXVII. 

Instead  of  a  matter  of  surprise  that  the  good  Abra 
ham  Lincoln  sometimes  lost  his  patience,  I  always  won- 

men  spill  that  freer  than  water  over  trifles, — but  by  exterminating  the  power  and 
the  works  cf  the  wrong-doer,  and,  if  necessary,  the  wrong-doer  himself. 

This  does  not  mean  half  as  much  as  GOD  means  when  HE  has  traitors  to  deal  with. 
History,  the  sacred  chronicler  from  the  grave,  is  Heaven's  secretary.  Open  his 
books,  and  see  how  the  Ruler  of  nations  treats  bad  leaders  of  communities  and 
empires. 

What  became  of  a  polluted  world  when  its  Maker  could  find  no  place  in  his  great 
heart  to  screen  or  hold  its  bad  people  any  longer  ? 

He  drowned  them  !     So  your  Bible  tells  you. 

What  became  of  his  own  chosen  people,  for  whom  he  had  wrought  miracles  by 
land  and  water,  to  whom  he  had  committed  his  holy  tabernacle, — the  evidence  of 
his  divine  presence  by  night  and  day  in  the  everlasting  flame,  that  never  ceased  to 
burn  over  the  altar  of  his  holy  temple,  telling  that  the  Protector  of  Israel  was  there, — 
his  chosen  people,  on  whom  HE  had  lavished  the  wealth  of  his  kingdom,  and  to  whom 
he  at  last  gave  the  most  precious  gem  in  his  diadem,  his  "  eternally  begotten  and 
well-beloved  Son  "  ?  Read  the  fate  of  that  chosen  people  wherever  the  winds  of 
heaven  sweep,  and,  innumerable  although  they  be,  they  are  among  the  nations  only 
chaff  on  the  summer  threshing-floor. 

What  became  of  the  Egyptian  tyrant  after  he  rejected  the  counsels  of  the  great 
Hebrew  statesman  and  set  himself  up  against  Moses'  "  proclamation  of  emancipa 
tion  "  ? 

Drowning  again. 

What  became  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah?     Brimstone  and  fire. 

What  became  of  Babylon  and  Nineveh,  Tyre  and  Sidon,  and  all  the  great  empires 
and  states  of  antiquity?  Any  Sunday-school  scholar  can  answer  these  questions. 
They  did  wrong  ;  they  persisted  in  wrong  ;  they  insulted  God  and  ground  his  help 
less  ones  into  the  dust.  They  were  foretold  their  fate ;  they  met  it,  and  wound  up 
their  history,  falling  charred  corpses  into  their  sepulchres ;  and  future  Layards  and 
Champollions  have  busied  themselves  in  digging  away  with  Birmingham  picks  and 
spades,  to  heave  up  from  the  ashes  of  ages  some  few  remains  of  these  triflers  with 
"  the  divine  humanity." 

Modern  history  tells  the  same  story;    for  God  is  just  as  much  the  Governor  of 


398  AN   AMERICAN   SLAVE   EMPIRE. 

dered  that  he  kept  it  at  all.  As  soon  as  Mr.  Edward 
Stanley  reached  his  post  as  Provisional  Governor  of 
North  Carolina,  he  made  a  striking  display  of  his  power 
by  ordering1  the  Colored  Schools  recently  established  by 

all  the  earth  to-day,  as  he  was  before  the  Caesars.  No  new  dispensation  has  been 
granted  to  nations.  It  is  graven  among  the  pandects  of  eternity  that  "the  nation 
that  will  not  serve  me  shall  perish." 

Heaven's  code  never  changes.  The  decisions  of  that  Court  of  final  Appeals  are 
never  reversed. 

Charles  I.  of  England  did  not  understand  this  philosophy.  His  ignorance  cost  him 
his  head  from  the  window  of  Palace  Hall. 

Louis  XVI.  did  not  understand  it ;  and  his  head  rolled  from  the  guillotine  in 
Paris. 

So  have  a  whole  regal  mob  of  the  oppressors  of  mankind,  sooner  or  later,  from 
Tarquin  to  Louis,  been  sent  to  their  doom  by  the  swift  judgment  of  Heaven. 

Modern  nations  have  followed  the  same  road  as  ancient  empires  wherever  they  have 
violated  the  great  laws  of  civic  prosperity  and  endurance.  They  have  gone  to  ruin 
over  the  same  beaten  track  where  the  dead  dynasties  of  the  past  had  left  their  bones. 

No  statesman  will  pretend,  be  he  saint  or  sinner,  that  a  man  or  a  nation  can  con 
tend  against  the  Almighty  and  prosper.  Justice  and  freedom  are  the  fundamental 
statutes  of  God's  system  of  jurisprudence.  Neither  men  nor  nations  are  exempt. 
These  laws  never  change;  and,  thank  God,  we  strike  solid  bottom  when  we  are  deal 
ing  with  Him! 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  pretexts  of  this  Rebellion,  every  man  who  is  not  wil 
fully  blind  saw  its  immediate  object  in  the  beginning.  But,  separation  once  effected, 
was  not  the  ultimate  design  equally  clear  ? — the  establishment  and  consolidation  of  a 
colossal  meridional  empire,  stretching  from  the  free  States  of  this  Union  towards  the 
south,  absorbing  Mexico  and  Central  America,  Cuba,  and  all  the  islands  of  the  sur 
rounding  archipelago,  and  appropriating  all  the  South  American  States  east  of  the 
Andes  ? 

This  empire  was  to  rest  on  African  Slavery  as  its  basis,  and  its  wealth  and  power 
were  to  spring  from  a  complete  monopoly  of  cotton,  and  the  principal  tropical  pro 
ducts  of  the  world. 

Nor  would  the  ultimate  achievement  have  been  beyond  the  regions  of  probability, 
had  the  leaders  been  allowed  to  break  away  from  their  allegiance  and  "go  in  peace." 

They  contemplated  nothing  impossible  in  the  gradual  absorption  of  these  vast  ter 
ritories,  partly  by  arms,  and  partly  by  treaties  of  annexation.  They  would  have  been 
only  re-establishing  African  slavery  where  it  had  but  recently  been  abolished,  more 
by  the  shock  of  revolution  than  as  a  reform  in  the  gradual  progress  of  society. 
They  would  have  encountered  no  unconquerable  obstacles  in  the  re-establishment  of 
domestic  slavery  for  a  while  at  least.  Slavery  is  congenial  to  the  tastes  of  the  Span- 
i>h  and  Portuguese  nations,  and  in  full  harmony  with  the  lower  civilization  which  ex 
ists  among  their  mixed  American  descendants. 

Besides,  they  wo.tld   have  readily  found   an  ally  in  Cuba,  which,  on  fair  terms, 


GOV.    STANLEY   CLOSES   COLORED   SCHOOLS.  399 

Vincent  Colyer  and  others  to  be  shut — they  were  "for 
bidden  by  the  Laws  of  the  State"  !  Mr.  Colyer  hurried 
on  to  Washington  and  called  on  Mr.  SUMNER,  who  at 
once  drove  with  him  to  the  President's.  After  hearing 
what  had  been  done,  Mr.  Lincoln  excitedly  exclaimed, 
"  Do  you  take  me  for  a  School-Committee-Man  ? " 

would  gladly  have  joined  this  gigantic  Power,  and,  asserting  her  independence,  as  all 
the  other  Spanish-American  states  had  done,  sprung  to  the  alliance  to  assert  her 
freedom,  and  save  her  half  a  million  of  slaves. 

Stepping  on  the  South  American  continent,  this  new  Power  would  have  trodden 
triumphantly  over  a  score  of  torn  and  shattered  Republics  on  its  march  to  Brazil, 
where  it  would  have  hoped  to  find  a  cordial  ally  and  partner  in  that  vast  but  youthful 
empire. 

Thus  the  only  slave-holders  and  the  only  slave-empires  of  the  earth  would  have  met, 
and  reared  a  structure  which  might  have  arrested  for  an  age  the  progress  of  meridi 
onal  American  regions. 

Something  far  less  strange  than  this  would  be,  had  long  been  history.  The  civili 
zation  of  ages  was  overthrown,  and  to  all  appearances  the  world's  march  was  arrested 
for  a  thousand  years.  The  combination  of  barbaric  forces  has  often  proved  for  the 
time  too  mighty  for  civilization.  Even  Christ's  temples  have  been  overthrown  in  a 
hundred  nations,  and  thirty  generations,  embracing  uncounted  hundreds  of  millions, 
have  ever  since  been  groping  in  heathen  darkness  around  their  ruins.  Although  the 
mighty  stream  of  human  progress,  as  a  'volume,  moves  steadily  on,  yet  some  of  its 
vast  eddies  move  backward  before  their  waters  can  once  more  mingle  in  the  general 
current. 

Such  a  concentration  of  all  the  elements  of  barbaric  power,  with  all  the  irresistible 
appliances  of  modern  inventions,  could,  by  the  forced  labor  of  the  enslaved  and  de 
pendent  classes,  have  reared  a  structure  against  which  not  only  the  puny  shafts  of 
refined  nations  would  have  struck  in  vain,  but  which  would  have  overshadowed  other 
states  and  ruled  for  a  while  sovereign  of  the  ascendant. 

No  meaner  vision  than  this  rested  on  the  eyes  of  the  projectors  of  the  Southern  re 
bellion.  The  only  difficult  step  in  the  accomplishment  of  this  stupendous  scheme  was 
the  first  one,— secession  from  the  Government  of  the  United  States.  This  was  to 
prove  an  impossibility.  All  the  rest  would  have  followed  at  half  the  cost  in  blood 
and  treasure  which  the  South  has  already  expended  during  the  first  two  years  of  the 
war.  The  total  enslavement  of  the  depressed  classes,  and  the  creation  of  a  powerful 
oligarchy  of  coadjutors,  would  have  rapidly  crystallized  all  the  incoherent  elements  of 
society  throughout  all  those  semi-barbarous  and  revolution-devastated  countries.  Or 
der  would  have  sprung  from  chaos  ;  but  it  would  have  been  the  order  which  reigns  in 
the  realms  of  tyrants ;  wealth  would  have  been  multiplied  by  magic,  but  it  would 
ha\e  been  the  fruit  of  involuntary  and  hopeless  toil.  But  such  did  not  happen  to  be 
the  will  of  Heaven.  This  virgin  continent  was  not  destined  to  so  horrible  a  prosti 
tution.  The  clock  of  Time  was  not  to  go  back  again  a  thousand  years. 


4CO  SUMNER   CALLS   FOR   INFORMATION. 

"Not  at  all;  I  take  you  for  President  of  the  United 
States,  and  I  come  with  a  case  of  wrong-,  in  attending 
to  which  your  predecessor,  George  Washington,  if  alive, 
might  add  to  his  renown."  In  an  instant  Mr.  Lincoln's 
tone  changed,  and  he  heard  the  case  patiently.  Return 
ing  to  the  Senate  Chamber, — June  2,  1862, — Mr.  SUMNER 
offered  the  following : 

Resolved,  That  the  Secretary  of  War  be  requested  to  communicate 
to  the  Senate  copies  of  any  commissions  or  orders  from  his  Department 
undertaking  to  appoint  Provisional  Governors  in  Tennessee  and  North 
Carolina,  with  the  instructions  given  to  the  Governors. 

Unanimous  leave  being  granted,  he  said:  "If  any 
person  in  the  name  of  the  United  States,  has  under 
taken  to  close  a  school  for  little  children,  whether  white 
or  black,  it  is  important  that  we  should  know  the 
authority  under  which  he  assumes  to  act.  Surely  nobody 
here  will  be  willing  to  take  the  responsibility  for  such 
an  act.  It  is  difficult  to  conceive  that  one  of  the  first- 
fruits  of  national  victory,  and  the  re-establishment  of  na 
tional  power  should  be  an  enormity  not  easy  to  char 
acterize  in  any  terms  of  moderation.  Sir,  in  the  name  of 
the  Constitution,  of  humanity,  and  of  common-sense,  I 
protest  against  such  impiety  under  sanction  of  the 
United  States." 

In  writing  to  a  friend  three  days  later,  he  said,  "  Your 
criticism  of  the  President  is  hasty.  I  am  confident,  if 
you  knew  him  as  I  do,  you  would  not  make  it.  I  am 
happy  to  let  you  know  that  he  has  no  sympathy  with 
Stanley  in  his  absurd  wickedness,  in  closing  the  schools  ; 
nor,  again,  in  his  other  act  of  turning  our  camps  into 
hunting-ground  for  slaves.  He  repudiates  both,  posi 
tively." 


SUMNER'S  CONFIDENCE  IN  LINCOLN.  401 

In  the  same  letter  he  also  said  :  "  Could  you,  as  has 
been  my  privilege  often,  have  seen  the  President,  while 
considering  the  great  questions  on  which  he  has  already 
acted,  beginning  with  the  invitation  to  Emancipation  in 
the  States,  then  Emancipation  in  the  District  of  Colum 
bia,  and  the  acknowledgment  of  the  Independence  of 
Hayti  and  Liberia,  even  your  zeal  would  be  satisfied  ; 
for  you  would  feel  the  sincerity  of  his  purpose  to  do 
what  he  can  to  carry  forward  the  principles  of  the  Decla 
ration  of  Independence.  His  whole  soul  is  occupied, 
especially,  by  the  first  proposition,  so  peculiarly  his  own. 
In  familiar  intercourse  with  him,  I  remember  nothing 
more  touching  than  the  earnestness  and  completeness 
with  which  he  embraced  the  idea.  To  his  mind  it  was 
just  and  beneficent,  while  it  promised  the  sure  end  of 
Slavery.  To  me,  who  had  already  proposed  a  Bridge 
of  Gold  for  the  retreating  Fiend,  it  was  most  welcome. 
Proceeding  from  the  President  it  must  take  its  place 
among  the  great  events  of  history.  I  say  to  you,  there 
fore,  Stand  by  the  Administration."  * 

*  A  European  correspondent  asked  me  to  give  him  an  idea  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  char 
acter.  I  sent  the  following  reply  : 

You  ask  me  about  Mr.  Lincoln  : — what  kind  of  a  man — what  kind  of  a  President 
— he  is. 

When  Mr.  Lincoln  entered  the  Presidential  mansion,  he  could  not  have  answered 
either  of  these  questions  himself.  It  is  a  matter  of  doubt  if  he  could  do  it  even  now. 

It  was  once  a  post  for  the  coronation  retirement  of  a  statesman,  when  he  had  earned 
the  supreme  honors  of  the  state.  In  times  of  peace  our  great  public  men  found  their 
legitimate  way  to  the  Home  of  the  Presidents — as  Washington  wished  to  have  the 
White  House  called.  Those  honors  then  were  always  worthily  won,  and  the  laurel 
wreath  kept  green  on  the  brows  of  all  their  wearers, — at  least  till  the  last  of  the 
primitive  chieftains  went  to  his  untroubled  rest  under  the  shades  of  the  "  Hermitage." 

Yes,  those  men  lived  to  reap  the  rich  rewards  of  peace  after  their  battles;  of  repose 
after  their  toils. 

But   it  was  no  pillow  of  down  on  which  Abraham  Lincoln  was  invited  to   lay  his- 
head.      He  thought  he  understood  something  of  what  had  been  committed  to  him  ;. 
and  when  he  stood  on  the  eastern  portico  of  the  Capitol,  all  blanched  before  the  surg 
ing  sea  of  anxious  men  and  women  who  were  waiting  to  learn  "  What  of  the  night  ?  " 
26 


402  MR.  LINCOLN'S  CHARACTER  DRAWN. 


XXXVIII. 

On  the  i pth  of  January,  1862,  Senator  McDouGALL,  of 
California,  had  introduced  into  the  Senate  a  series  of 
Resolutions  concerning  the  attempt  to  subject  the  Repub 
lic  of  Mexico  to  French  authority,  in  which  the  following 
peremptory  clause  appeared  : — "  That  it  is  the  duty  of 

would  bring  from  the  new  sentinel,  he  uttered  words  to  which  the  events  of  the  future 
were  to  give  an  astounding  and  unforeseen  significance. 

Lincoln's  Presidency  has  been  a  heritage  of  trouble.  No  good  man  in  his  senses 
would  have  taken  the  honor,  if  he  could  have  foreseen  a  tithe  of  its  bewildering  heart- 
achings, — the  treason,  the  blood,  the  agony  it  would  cost  the  noble  nation,  betrayed 
by  its  own  children,  immolated  before  his  own  eyes, — or  the  home-troubles  it  would 
bring  to  his  fireside. 

But  the  men  who  voluntarily  assume  the  direction  of  public,  or  even  private,  affairs, 
must  be  ready  for  any  emergency.  Nobody  has  any  right  to  assume  that  everything 
\vill  go  right.  Nor  is  there  any  ground  to  suppose  that  Mr.  Lincoln  did.  On  the 
ccntrary,  his  inaugural  address  clearly  proved  that  his  eye  had  pierced  the  probable 
future, — not,  indeed,  all  that  future  which  has  since  become  history,  for  human  ken 
could  not  reach  so  far.  But  that  he  has  had  to  confront  more  surprises,  and  grapple 
with  more  difficulties  than  could  have  been  known  to,  or  anticipated  by  any  human  in 
telligence,  will  hardly  be  denied. 

Some  peculiar  and  fortunate  qualities  in  his  character  have  enabled  him  not  only  to 
-save  the  country  from  ruin,  but  also  to  inspire  and  sustain  a  most  healthy  state  of  the 
body  politic,  in  the  midst  of  the  avalanches  and  whirlwinds  which  have  struck  and 
shaken  our  whole  system  of  civic  life. 

His  first  characteristic  is  self-control.  lie  very  seldom  loses  his  equanimity. 
This  gives  room  for  the  constant  exercise  of  his  judgment. 

'His  second  characteristic  is  his  good,  plain,  home-made  common-sense,  "This  is 
a  quality,"  Southey  said,  "  rarer  than  genius."  So  far  as  all  the  real  business  of  life 
is  concerned  for  men  or  nations,  strong  common-sense  is  the  surest  and  safest  guide. 
Through  this  alembic  all  the  unfriendly  and  dangerous  elements  of  this  terrible 
conflict  have  had  to  pass. 

Another  quality  has  mingled  itself,  by  the  laws  of  affinity  in  moral  chemistry,  with 
Mr.  Lincoln's  executive  acts, — humor,  bonJiommic,  good  nature.  Men  have  com 
plained  of  him  on  this  ground.  They  have  charged  him  with  levity.  But  these 
critics  should  remember  one  of  the  fine  sayings  of  Malesherbes,  the  great  Frenchman, 
"  A  fortunate  dash  of  pleasantry  has  often  saved  the  peace  of  families, — sometimes  of 
an  empire."  It  is  fully  believed  that  Mr.  Lincoln's  cheerfulness  has  dissipated  many 
a  cloud  that  lowered  around  the  "  Home  of  the  Presidents,"  and  left  its  fragments 
"  in  the  deep  ocean  buried."  And,  last  of  all,  his  firm  faith  in  the  durability  of  the 
republic  is  unbroken.  All  these  qualities,  united,  make  him  what  he  is. 


MR.  LINCOLN'S  WRITTEN  OPINION.  403 

this  Republic  to  require  of  the  government  of  France, 
that  her  armed  forces  be  withdrawn  from  the  territories 
of  Mexico,"  and  on  the  3d  of  February,  when  the  Reso 
lutions  came  up  for  consideration,  Mr.  McDouGALL  made 
an  elaborate  speech,  in  which  he  doubtless  expressed 
the  prevailing  sentiment  of  the  Senate,  and  of  the  coun 
try,  so  far  as  the  intervention  of  France  and  our  sympa 
thy  with  Mexico  were  concerned.  But  it  was  in  violation 
of  all  prudential  considerations,  under  the  circumstances. 
In  the  affairs  of  nations,  sometimes  those  things  that 
are  right  in  themselves,  are  altogether  wrong,  all  things 
considered.  Mr.  McDouGALL  did  not  make  this  distinc 
tion.  But  statesmanship  could  not  afford  to  overlook  it. 
In  speaking  on  this  subject,  Mr.  LINCOLN  expressed  the 
same  words  that  he  did  to  me  when  the  Trent  matter 
came  up,  which  were  exactly  these,  as  he  afterwards 
wrote  them  to  me  himself:  "At  that  time,  we  were  not 
prepared  to  shoulder  fresh  troubles,  having  all  we  could 
carry,  of  our  own!' 

So  thought  Mr.  SUMNER,  who,  in  reply  to  Senator 
McDouGALL,  said: 

MR.  PRESIDENT, — At  the  present  moment  there  is  one  touchstone 
to  which  I  am  disposed  to  bring  every  question,  especially  in  our  foreign 
relations  ;  and  this  touchstone  is  its  influence  on  the  suppression  of  the 
Rebellion.  A  measure  may  in  itself  be  just  or  expedient ;  but  if  it 
would  be  a  present  burden,  if  it  wrould  add  to  our  embarrassments  and 
troubles,  and  especially  if  it  would  aggravate  our  military  condition, 
then,  whatever  may  be  its  merits,  I  am  against  it.  To  the  suppression 
of  the  Rebellion  the  country  offers  life  and  treasure  without  stint,  and 
it  expects  that  these  energies  shall  not  be  sacrificed  or  impaired  by  the 
assumption  of  any  added  responsibilities. 

If  I  bring  these  Resolutions  to  this  touchstone,  they  fail.  They  may 
be  right  or  wrong  in  fact  or  principle,  but  their  influence  at  this  mo 
ment,  if  adopted,  must  be  most  prejudicial  to  the  cause  of  the  Union. 
Assuming  the  tone  of  friendship  to  Mexico,  they  practically  give  to  the 


404  SUMNER   ON   OUR   FOREIGN   RELATIONS. 

Rebellion  a  most  powerful  ally,  for'  they  openly  challenge  war  with 
France.  There  is  madness  in  the  proposition.  I  do  not  question  the 
motives  of  the  Senator,  but  it  would  be  difficult  to  conceive  anything 
more  calculated  to  aid  and  comfort  the  Rebellion,  just  in  proportion  to 
its  adoption.  Sufficient  unto  the  day  is  the  evil  thereof.  The  present 
war  is  surely  enough,  without  adding  war  with  France. 

It  is  sufficient  that  the  policy  of  the  Senator  from  California,  without 
any  certainty  of  good  to  Mexico,  must  excite  the  hostility  of  France, 
and  give  to  the  Rebellion  army  and  fleets,  not  to  mention  that  recogni 
tion  and  foreign  intervention  which  we  deprecate. 

Let  us  all  unite  to  put  down  the  Rebellion.  This  is  enough  for  the 
present. 

If  Senators  are  sensitive,  when  they  see  European  monarchies  again 
setting  foot  on  this  hemisphere, — entering  Mexico  with  their  armies, 
entering  New  Granada  with  their  influence,  and  occupying  the  ancient 
;  San  Domingo, — let  them  consider  that  there  is  but  one  way  in  which 
this  return  of  empire  can  be  arrested.  It  is  by  the  suppression  of  the 
Rebellion.  Let  the  Rebellion  be  overcome,  and  this  whole  continent 
will  fall  naturally,  peacefully,  and  tranquilly  under  the  irresistible  influ 
ence  of  American  institutions.  Resolutions  cannot  do  this,  nor 
speeches.  I  therefore  move  that  the  Resolutions  lie  on  the  table. 

They  did. 

XXXIX. 

Our  foreign  relations, — such  as  they  were, — such  as 
they  might  be, — was  the  subject  which,  next  to  the 
varying  fortunes  of  the  War  for  the  Union,  now  occu 
pied  the  anxious  thoughts  of  statesmen  at  home  and 
abroad. 

Sometimes  it  is  as  true  with  nations  as  with  individuals 
that  an  age  is  crowded  into  an  hour, — that  the  flash  of  a 
sabre  may  do  in  a  second  what  a  whole  generation  has 
waited  for, — that  exhausted  patience  among  men  and 
governments  may  assume  the  prerogatives  of  the  Al 
mighty,  and  let  the  bolt  and  the  flash  come  together. 
But  beware  where  the  bolt  strikes. 


HOW  EUROPE   FELT  TOWARDS   US.  4O5 

This  had  a  full  application  in  our  experience.  We  found 
our  enemies  had  become  those  of  our  own  household. 
They  attempted  to  break  up  our  Government,  to  over 
throw  our  Union,  to  destroy  our  prosperity,  and  wind 
up  our  history  as  a  first-class  Power.  The  Government 
of  the  United  States  had  never  deviated  from  the  accom 
plishment  of  its  legitimate  objects.  It  was  made  for  all, 
and  it  had  protected  all.  No  State  could  claim  that  it 
had  been  wronged  in  any  measure,  without  instantly 
having  its  wrong  adjusted  by  the  supreme  legislative,  ju 
dicial,  or  executive  power. 

And  thus,  without  any  infraction  of  law  or  any  inva 
sion  of  prerogative,  one  section  of  the  country  was  ar 
rayed  in  hostility  against  the  other ;  and  suddenly  we 
found  ourselves  threatened  with  the  choice  of  two  evils, 
—a  struggle  to  the  death,  if  necessary,  against  dismem 
berment,  if  not  indeed  against  total  destruction ;  or  to 
submit  tamely  to  inevitable  ruin. 

This  was  a  new  spectacle  for  the  nations  of  Europe 
to  look  on  ;  and,  as  might  be  expected,  it  gave  them 
a  good  chance  for  showing  how  truly  they  had  rejoiced 
in  our  prosperity,  or  how  glad  they  would  be  in  our  mis 
fortune. 


XL. 

RUSSIA, — by  all  odds  the  grandest  of  all  European 
structures, — without  waiting  an  hour  for  consultation 
with  other  Powers,  sent  back  her  assurances  of  sympa 
thy  with  us  in  our  efforts  to  frustrate  this  treasonable 
attempt  to  break  up  a  free  and  prosperous  Government, 
which  had  proved  so  powerful  and  beneficent  a  shield 
for  the  protection  of  all  its  people. 


4G<3  FRIENDSHIP   OF   RUSSIA. 

Russia  is  the  natural  ally  of  the  United  States.  She 
has  a  vast  territory,  and  all  her  people  look  to  her  for 
protection.  She  has,  during"  a  thousand  years,  been 
slowly  but  surely  emerging  from  Asiatic  barbarism  into 
the  light  and  strength  of  modern  civilization.  She  has, 
moreover,  done  what  no  other  nation  had  done  :  she 
has  carried  the  masses  of  her  people  along  with  her  as 
fast  as  she  has  travelled  herself. 

Oriental  in  her  origin,  she  has  maintained  a  patriarchal 
government.  If  it  has  ever  been  a  despotism  in  form,  it 
W7as  manifestly  the  only  machinery  strong  enough  to  gov 
ern,  protect,  and  bless  all  her  people. 

She  undertook  a  work  far  more  difficult  than  Rome 
had  to  do.  She  had  to  aggregate,  harmonize,  and  blend 
together  the  great  nomadic  tribes  of  the  East.  When 
from  the  affluent  social  systems  of  Asia,  bursting  with 
crowded  populations,  they  drifted  westward  on  her  now 
European  territories,  Russia  was  submerged  by  wild, 
strange,  and  savage  races.  She  had  the  most  stupen 
dous  task  given  to  her  which  any  nation  has  ever  had  to 
perform.  Contending  with  difficulties  which  had  never 
before  been  encountered,  she  has  at  last  presented  to  the 
world  the  wonderful  spectacle  of  a  mighty  empire  made 
up  of  countless  dissevered  and  warring  communities,  all 
ferocious,  all  untamed,  all  nomadic,  all  speaking  different 
tongues,  and  representing  all  the  religious  superstitions 
of  the  East;  but  now  all  blended  in  a  homogeneous  so 
cial  and  political  system,  which  has  not  only  eclipsed,  in 
the  culture  of  its  upper  classes,  the  refinement  of  Euro 
pean  courts,  and  matched  them  in  the  arts  of  war  and 
peace,  but  has  boldly  struck  the  shackles  of  slavery  from 
the  limbs  of  as  many  million  men  as  now  make  up 
the  population  of  all  our  old  Free  States.  I  cannot  resist 


BAYARD   TAYLOR  S   ODE   TO   RUSSIA. 


407 


the  desire  here  to  link  BAYARD  TAYLOR'S  grandest  poem 
with  this  portion  of  our  historic  chain. * 

That  involuntary  servitude  should  be  abolished  by  the 
most  despotic  of  nations,  with  the  applause  of  the  world, 
and  the  day  of  emancipation  (March  3,  1863)  be  ushered 
in  by  chimes  of  gratitude  and  thanksgiving  from  every 
church-spire  in  the  Russian  Empire,  while  the  great  Re 
public  of  the  world  still  bound  the  fetters  upon  four  mil 
lion  slaves,  will  hereafter  read  strangely  in  history. 

But  a  wiser  and  broader  statesmanship  than  ours 
Of uides  the  destinies  of  Russia. 


*  A   THOUSAND    YEARS. 

A  thousand  years,  through  storm  and  fire, 

With  varying  fate,  the  work  has  grown, 
Till  Alexander  crowns  the  spire 

Where  Rurik  laid  the  corner-stone. 


The  chieftain's  sword  that  could  not  rust, 
But  bright  in  constant  battle  grew, 

Raised  to  the  world  a  throne  august, — 
A  nation  grander  than  he  knew. 

Nor  he  alone  ;   but  those  who  have, 

Through  faith  or  deed,  an  equal  part, — 

The  subtle  brain  of  Yaroslav, 

Vladimir's  arm,  and  Nikon's  heart, — 

The  later  hands  that  built  so  well 

The  work  sublime  which  these  began, 

And  up  from  base  to  pinnacle 

Wrought  out  the  Empire's  mighty  plan, — 

All  these  to-day  are  crown' d  anew, 
And  rule  in  splendor  where  they  trod, 

While  Russia's  children  throng  to  view 
Her  holy  cradle,  Novgorod, — 

From  Volga's  banks,  from  Dwina's  side, 
From  pine-clad  Ural,  dark  and  long, 

Or  where  the  foaming  Terek's  tide 
Leaps  down  from  Kasbek,  bright  with  song, 

From  Altai's  chain  of  mountain-cones, 

Mongolian  deserts  far  and  free, 
And  lands  that  bind,  through  changing  zones, 

Tlu:  Eastern  and  the  Western  Sea. 


To  every  race  she  gives  a  home, 

And  creeds  and  laws  enjoy  her  shade, 

Till  far  beyond  the  dreams  of  Rome 
Her  Caesar's  mandate  is  obey'd. 


She  blends  the  virtues  they  impart, 
And  holds  within  her  life  combined 

The  patient  faith  of  Asia's  heart, 

The  force  of  Europe's  restless  mind. 

She  bids  the  nomad's  wandering  cease, 
She  binds  the  wild  marauder  fast  ; 

Her  ploughshares  turn  to  homes  of  peace 
The  battle-fields  of  ages  past. 

And,  nobler  far,  she  dares  to  know 

Her  future's  task, — nor  knows  in  vain, 

But  strikes  at  once  the  generous  blow 
That  makes  her  millions  men  again  ! 

So,  firmer  based,,  her  power  expands, 
Nor  yet  has  seen  its  crowning  hour, 

Still  teaching  to  the  struggling  lands 
That  Peace  the  offspring  is  of  Power. 

Build  up  the  storied  bronze,  to  tell 
The  steps  whereby  this  height  she  trod, — 

The  thousand  years  that  chronicle 
The  toil  of  man,  the  help  of  God  ! 

And  may  the  thousand  years  to  come — 
The  future  ages,  wise  and  free — 

Still  see  her  flag  and  hear  her  drum 
Across  the  world,  from  sea  to  sea, — 


Still  find,  a  symbol  stern  and  grand, 
Her  ancient  eagle's  strength  unshorn, 

One  head  to  watch  the  western  land 

And  one  to  guard  the  land  of  morn  ! 
NOVGOROD,  RUSSIA,  Sept.  20,  1862. 


408  ENGLAND'S  FEELING  IN  CONTRAST. 

It  was  from  such  a  nation  that  the  earliest  words  of 
sympathy  and  confidence  came  when  our  first  domestic 
troubles  began  ;  and  it  was  not  forgotten  by  the  Ameri 
can  people  when  that  tempest  swept  by.  We  see  new 
storms  gathering  over  Europe,  and  our  aid  may  be  in 
voked  against  Russia,  and  invoked  in  vain.  States 
men  know  that  while  individuals  may  forgive,  nations 
never  do. 

XLI. 

How  has  England  looked  on  this  contest  ?  Strange 
enough  has  been  the  course  she  has  taken.  She  will 
hardly  be  able  hereafter  to  explain  it  to  others  :  it  is 
doubtful  if  she  can  do  it  now  even  to  herself. 

England  lives  in  America  to-day,  and  is  dying  at  home. 

England  is  clinging  to  her  sepulchres, — and  she  may 
well  do  it ;  for  the  places  where  her  great  ones  repose 
are  the  greenest  spots  on  her  island. 

We  Americans  cheated  ourselves  most  egregiously 
when  we  thought  England — once  the  head  of  the  slave- 
trade,  and  only  a  few  years  ago  the  front  of  the  aboli 
tionism  of  the  world — would  turn  her  slavery-hating  back 
on  the  only  organized  band  of  slavery  propagandism  on 
the  earth  ! 

Poor  fools  we  !  Just  as  though  the  British  aristoc 
racy — the  true  name  for  the  British  Government — meant 
anything  but  interference  and  trouble  for  us  when  her 
Grace  the  Duchess  of  Sutherland  chaperoned  the  gifted 
Harriet  Beecher  Stowe  through  the  court  of  her  Majesty, 
simply  because  Mrs.  Stowe,  by  writing  a  great  dramatic 
novel  against  slavery,  could  be  made  a  cat's-paw  to  pull 
the  chestnuts  of  the  British  aristocracy  out  of  the  fire ! 


INSINCERITY   OF   ENGLISH   PROFESSIONS.  409 

Yes,  abolitionism  suited  the  purposes  of  the  British 
aristocracy  just  then  ;  and  lords  and  ladies  swarmed  at 
negro-emancipation  gatherings  at  Exeter  Hall.  On  all 
such  occasions  three  standing  jokes  were  played  off,  to 
the  infinite  amusement  of  dukes  and  duchesses, — duch 
esses  more  particularly. 

First,  there  must  be  a  live  American  negro, — the 
blacker  the  better,  sometimes  ;  but  they  generally  got 
one  as  little  black  as  possible,  and  an  octoroon  threw 
them  into  the  highest  state  of  subdued  frenzy  admissible 
in  the  upper  classes.  The  aforesaid  negro  must  have 
escaped  from  the  indescribable  horrors  and  barbarities 
of  slavery  in  the  Southern  States, — gashed,  manacled 
—if  he  showed  the  manacles,  so  much  the  better — a  sam 
ple  of  American  barbarism,  and  a  burning  shame  on  the 
otherwise  fair  cheek  of  the  goddess  of  American  liberty. 

"  Oh,  yes,"  said  my  lord  Brougham;  ''nothing  stands 
in  your  way  now  but  negro  slavery.  Abolish  that,  and 
every  heart  in  England  is  with  you." 

Secondly,  at  these  Exeter  Hall  meetings  they  must 
have  a  live  American  abolitionist, — once  a  slaveholder 
who  had  emancipated  his  slaves.  Here  they  found  their 
man  in  the  noble  Judge  Birney,  as  in  \he.  first  they  found 
a  splendid  specimen  of  a  runaway  octoroon  in  Frederick 
Douglas,  Esq., — the  black  Douglas, — and  who,  by-the- 
by,  made  a  better  speech  by  far  than  any  aristocrat  in 
England. 

Thirdly,  and  last  of  all,  some  ecclesiastic  gentleman 
bestowed  upon  the  proceedings  the  benediction. 

This  would  have  been  well  enough, — certainly  so  far 
as  the  benediction  was  concerned, — had  not  future 
events  proved  beyond  a  doubt  that,  at  the  very  moment 
these  curious  things  were  occurring,  the  whole  prestige 


410  HATRED    OF   ENGLAND'S   RULING   CLASSES. 

of  the  British  empire  was  invoked  to  sanctify  and  adorn 
a  spirit  of  hostility  to  the  Government  of  the  United 
States,  and  that  the  solemnities  of  our  holy  religion  were 
also  invoked  in  the  same  cause. 

But  to  my  unpractised  eye  it  looked  at  the  time  very 
much  as  later  events  have  shown  it, — a  thorough  hatred 
of  America  by  the  ruling  classes  of  England. 

Atone  time  Lord  Brougham  presided;  again,  O'Con- 
nell ;  and  again,  the  venerable  Thomas  Clarkson  :  they 
even  got  his  Royal  Highness  Prince  Albert  to  do  it 
once,  on  a  somewhat  narrower  scale, — where  even  ten 
der  young  duchesses  could  attend  with  impunity — the 
American  negro  always  being  present,  like  Tom  Thumb 
in  Barnum's  chief  amusements — and,  being  fortified  with 
a  supply  of  highly-perfumed  kerchiefs,  the  young 
duchesses  managed  generally  to  live  it  through  and 
revive  after  reaching  the  open  air  ! 

These  farces  were  played  off  all  through  the  British 
Islands  ;  and  the  poor  British  people — who,  from  long 
habit,  I  suppose,  go  where  "  their  betters "  go,  when 
allowed  to — -joined  in  the  movement,  and  "American 
anti-slavery  societies "  were  everywhere  established. 
Even  chambermaids  and  factory-girls  contributed  to 
raise  a  fund  to  send  "  English  missionaries  "  over  here 
"to  enlighten  the  North  about  the  duty  of  the  South  to 
abolish  slavery." 

Some  of  these  scenes  were  sufficiently  vulgar  ;  but  they 
were  sometimes  got  up,  in  some  respects,  in  fine  taste. 
One  occasion  I  recall  with  the  highest  pleasure,  which, 
although  ostensibly  an  anti-slavery  dinner,  was  limited 
chiefly  in  its  company  to  the  literary  men  of  London.* 

*  Among  the  good  things  of  that  evening  was  a  short  poem  written  for  the  occa 
sion  by  Wm.  Beattie,  M.D.,  the  gifted  and  well-known  author  of  "Scotland  Illus- 


DR.  BEATTIE'S  ADDRESS  TO  OUR  POETS.  411 

It  was  a  noble  enthusiasm  among  the  people  ;  but  it 
was — anybody  could  see  through  it,  for  it  was  the  veriest 
gauze — all  an  aristocratic  sham.  It  did  not  mean  any 
thing  for  human  freedom.  It  meant  hostility  to  the 
United  States.  It  was  got  up  by  British  politicians. 
Sir  Robert  Peel  and  the  Duke  of  Wellington  had  no 
part  or  parcel  in  it,  unless  it  were  through  sheer  courtesy 
to  the  men  of  their  class. 

XLII. 

This  English  crusade  against  the  United  States  was 
got  up  by  the  British  aristocracy  in  sheer  animosity 
against  our  Government, — not  so  much,  perhaps, 
against  our  people,  chiefly  because  they  cared  nothing 
about  them.  It  was  our  system  of  government  they 
hated,  because  it  was  a  standing,  growing,  and  luminous 
reproof  of  the  blighting  and  degrading  system  of  Eng- 

trated,"  etc.     I  do  not  know  if  it   has  been  published.     I   remember  some  of  the 
stanzas.     It  is  an  address  from  "  England's  Poets  to  the  Poets  of  America." 

Your  Garrison  has  faun'd  the  flame,  Oh,  where  should  Freedom's  hope  abide, 
Child,  Chapman,  Pierpont,  caught  the  fire,  Save  in  the  bosoms  of  the  free? 

And,  roused  at  Freedom's  hallow' d  name,  Where  should  the  wretched  negro  hide, 
Hark  !   1'ryant,  Whittier,  strike  the  lyre  ;  Save  in  the  shade  of  Freedom's  tree? 

While  here  hearts  myriad  trumpet-toned,  Oh,  by  those  songs  your  children  sing, 

Montgomery,  Cowper,  Campbell,  Moore,  The  lays  that  soothe  your  winter  fires, 

To  Freedom's  glorious  cause  respond,  The  hopes,  the  hearths,  to  which  you  cling, 

In  sounds  which  thrill  through  every  core.  The  sacred  ashes  of  your  sires, — 

Their  voice  has  conjured  up  a  power  By  all  the  joys  that  crown  the  free, — 

No  fears  can  daunt,  no  foes  arrest,  Love,  honor,  fame,  the  hope  of  Heaven, — 

Which  gathers  strength  with  every  hour  Wake  in  your  might,  that  earth  may  se^ 

And  strikes  a  chord  in  every  breast, —  God's  gifts  have  not  been  vainly  give^. 

A  power  that  soon  in  every  land —  Bards  of  Freedom's  favor'd  land, 

On  Europe's  shore,  on  ocean's  flood —  Strike  at  last  your  loftiest  key, 

Shall  smite  the  oppressors  of  mankind  Peal  the  watchword  through  the  land, 

And  blast  the  traffickers  in  blood.  Shout  till  every  slave  be  free. 

Long  has  he  drain' d  the  bitter  cup, 

Long  borne  the  burden,  clank' d  the  chain  ; 
But  now  the  strength  of  Europe's  up, — 

A  strength  that  ne'er  shall  sleep  again. 


412  STARVATION   IN   ENGLAND. 

land,  which    starves  the  masses  of  her  people  in  order 
that  the  privileged  few  may  die  of  surfeit. 

"  Blackwood's  Magazine,"  an  authority  not  likely  to 
be  charged  with  hostility  towards  the  British  oligarchy, 
nor  with  favoritism  towards  our  republic,  said  in  speak 
ing  on  this  same  subject  in  the  same  year — 1840 — 

"  It  were  well  if  some  ingenious  optician  could  invent 
an  instrument  which  would  remedy  the  defects  of  that 
long-sighted  benevolence  which  sweeps  the  field  for 
distant  objects  of  compassion,  while  it  is  blind  as  a  bat  to 
the  misery  around  its  own  doors." 

Well  said  !  I  saw  and  felt  it  all  when  I  went  through 
the  streets  and  lanes  and  cellars  of  Manchester,  where 
fifty  thousand  blanched  skeleton  men,  women,  and  chil 
dren  were,  slowly  or  rapidly,  dying  of  starvation.  In 
that  city,  also,  vast  anti-slavery  meetings  were  got  up 
to  induce  the  North  to  put  down  slavery  in  the  South. 
These  assemblages  were  invariably  under  the  auspices 
of  the  aristocracy,  and  they  were  held  where  the  police 
were  stationed  at  the  doorways  to  drive  off  the  famish 
ing,  lest  their  plaint  of  hunger  might  salute  the  ears  of 
their  bloated  task-masters. 

There  was    no    lack    of  cotton   in   Manchester  then. 
There  was  something  worse  than  that.     It  was  the  same 
old    complaint  you  will  find  in  any  part  of  England,— 
the    poor  over-worked  and  under-fed  to  make  the  rich 
richer  and  the  poor  poorer. 

I  went  up  to  Paisley,  where  more  than  half  the  po 
pulation  were  being  fed  from  soup-kettles, — and  pretty 
poor  soup  at  that.  There,  too,  the  abolition  of  Ameri 
can  slavery  seemed  to  be  the  only  thing  which  drew 
forth  the  sympathies  or  reached  the  charity  of  the 
aristocratic  classes. 


ENGLAND    OWED    US   NO   GOOD-WILL.  413 

So  everywhere  in  England  it  was,  "  that  long-sighted 
benevolence,  sweeping  the  distant  horizon  for  objects  of 
compassion,  but  blind  as  a  bat  to  the  misery  at  the 
door." 

It  was  not  so  in  1840  alone.  I  have  been  in  England 
several  times  since,  but  I  never  saw  a  good  year  for  the 
poor  of  that  oppressive  empire. 

To  show  that  this  was  all  the  poorest  of  shams,  and 
that  England  owed  us  no  good-will,  let  us  step  from 
1840  to  1863. 

We  saw  all  things  the  same  in  England,  except  in  the 
"negro  business."  Here  all  was  changed.  British 
sympathy  was  shifted  from  the  slave  and  lavished  on 
his  master, — from  "  moral  pocket-handkerchiefs  and  reli 
gious  fine  tooth-combs  "  to  the  overseer's  lash  and  the 
unleashed  bloodhound, — from  the  maintenance  of  free 
institutions  to  their  overthrow, — from  civilization  to  bar 
barism, — from  liberty  to  bondage. 

In  1840,  Mr.  Stephenson,  our  Virginia  slave-breeding 
Ambassador  near  the  Court  of  St.  James,  became  so 
odious  that  no  chance  to  snub  or  insult  him  was  lost  by 
the  British  Government. 

Mr.  Adams,  holding  that  same  post,  and  embellishing 
it  with  all  the  great  and  noble  qualities  of  illuminated 
talents  and  Christian  philanthropy,  was  treated  with  far 
more  neglect  and  far  less  cordiality  by  the  same  class 
which  pretended  to  despise  Stephenson  and  feted  Har 
riet  Beecher  Stowe. 

Then  England  complained  of  our  remissness  or  shirk 
ing  in  not  doing  our  share  towards  putting  down  the 
slave-trade.  Now  all  her  sympathies  were  with  the  sup 
porters  of  slavery  itself,  which  was  the  only  support  of 
slavery  on  the  earth ;  and  her  ship-yards  and  arsenals 


4H  PLAIN  LETTER  TO  LORD  JOHN  RUSSELL. 

were  taxed  to  their  utmost  to  build  fleets  of  the  strong 
est  and  swiftest  steam  pirates,  to  help  the  slave-driving 
Confederacy  in  sweeping  our  peaceful  commerce  from 
the  sea,  once  more  to  inaugurate  the  traffic  in  flesh  and 
blood. 

The  British  Government  knew,  when  the  Alabama's 
keel  was  laid,  that  she  was  to  become  a  pirate ;  and  our 
minister  protested  against  it  in  vain.  Three  hundred 
of  the  rich  merchants  of  England,  in  broad  daylight, 
boasted  of  their  purpose,  and  exulted  over  its  success 
ful  execution. 

The  British  Government  gave  the  earliest  and  hearti 
est  encouragement  to  the  rebellion,  by  recognizing  it  as 
a  belligerent  power  the  moment  its  task-masters  reached 
London.  It  allowed  all  the  materials  and  munitions  of 
war  the  rebels  called  for  to  be  furnished,  and,  from  the 
first  hour,  gave  to  the  Rebellion  all  the  aid  and  comfort 
it  dared  to  furnish  our  enemies,  in  their  atrocious  attempt 
to  immolate  liberty,  and  enthrone  slavery  in  the  Western 
world  !  * 

*  It  has  amazed  those  who  were  familiar  with  Lord  John  Russell's  public  history 
that  he  should  have  trifled  so  heartlessly  with  the  great  issues  of  civilization  and  free 
government  at  stake  in  this  Rebellion.  This  shuffling  cost  him  the  confidence  of  the 
great  middle  class  in  England  and  the  respect  of  the  world.  If  the  following  letter 
addressed  to  him  may  seem  to  be  unlike  letters  usually  written  to  titled  men,  I  con 
sider  it  quite  respectful  enough  to  the  man  who  struck  hands  with  pirates  and  became 
pimp  to  the  propagandists  of  negro  slavery.  Although  written  more  than  eleven 
years  ago,  I  see  no  occasion  for  retracting  a  syllable  or  cancelling  a  word. 

MY  LORD  : — We  have  a  habit  you  are  not  much  accustomed  to, — of  straight  talk 
and  honest  dealing :  so  you  need  not  be  amazed  if  we  speak  very  plainly  in  this 
despatch. 

You  have  all  your  life  been  a  place- seeker  or  a  place-holder.  To  get  power  and 
money,  you  have  always  turned  your  back  on  your  friends,  and  let  your  Reform  meas 
ures  go  to  the  dogs.  Whenever  you  have  been  an  "  out,"  and  any  American  question 
came  up,  you  were  a  warm  advocate  of  our  Republic.  When  you  were  an  k'in," 
you  changed  your  tone.  When  Liberty  was  at  stake  in  a  foreign  nation,  or  at  home, 
you  have  been  its  noisiest  champion, — if  an  " out."  If  an  "in,"  you  have  done  your 
best  to  crush  it,  in  Ireland,  Hungary,  Italy,  Spain,  and  Poland.  It  was  with  a  pang 


HIS   UNWORTHY   CONDUCT.  415 

No  jurist  will  pretend  to  say  that  in  all  this  she  did 
not  violate  the  spirit,  if  not  the  letter,  of  her  own  laws 
of  neutrality,  and  the  laws  of  nations.  No  intelligent 
man  will  deny  that  by  these  acts  she  prolonged  and 
inflamed  that  accursed  war.  No  man  in  his  senses  sup 
poses  for  a  moment  that  England  would  have  ventured 

that  you  saw  even  old  Greece  become  free.  For  half  a  century,  if  an  "out,"  you 
have  brawled  for  Freedom  and  Free  Governments;  if  an  "in,"  you  have  resorted  to 
the  very  last  trick  to  keep  there.  You  have,  if  an  "out,"  always  paraded  your 
friendship  for  the  United  States,  and  virulently  assailed  any  Tory  or  Conservative 
ministry.  "In"  again,  you  first  veered,  then  hesitated,  then  tacked,  and  then  at 
tacked  us,  our  Government,  and  all  American  things.  You  know  our  Republic  has 
never  had  any  fair  play  from  any  ministry  except  the  Tories  or  Conservatives.  All 
Americans  involuntarily  say  of  British  politicians  of  your  stripe,  "  Save  us  from  our 
friends,  and  we  will  take  care  of  our  enemies."  But  you  have  reserved  the  meanest 
and  most  bare-faced  tergiversation  of  your  public  life  till  you  were  pressing  the  verge 
of  your  mortal  existence.  After  pointing  a  thousand  times  with  exultation  to  our 
great  and  prosperous  nation,  and  deploring  the  two  wars  waged  against  us,  you  are 
now  gloating  over  the  prospect  (as  you  deem  it)  of  our  speedy  disruption  and  down 
fall.  After  hobnobbing  with  every  abolitionist  and  feting  every  run-away  American 
negro  who  managed  to  reach  England,  and  imploring  Britons  no  longer  to  use  slave- 
grown  cotton  and  sugar,  you  now  take  sides  with  the  "nigger-driving"  secessionists 
of  the  rebel  States,  who  are  trying  to  break  clown  freedom  in  America,  and  extend 
the  area  of  that  accursed  institution,  and  sanctify  the  revival  of  the  African  slave- 
trade.  You  are  threatening  war  against  the  United  States  unless  we  will  surrender 
two  intercepted  traitors  on  their  way  to  your  abolition  arms  and  sympathies,  the 
chiefest  emissaries  which  the  slavery  you  have  always  pretended  to  hate,  could  send 
to  your  shores. 

O  JOHN  RUSSELL  !  how  unworthy  is  all  this  of  the  descendant  of  your  great  an 
cestor,  who  sealed  with  his  blood  on  the  scaffold  his  life-long  devotion  to  'the  cause  of 
justice  and  human  freedom  !  Why  must  you,  just  as  you  are  ending  your  career,  rob 
your  proud  name  of  that  ancient  halo  which  has  gathered  around  it,  by  expending 
your  last  efforts  in  trying  to  blot  out  Free  Government,  for  which  the  founder  of  your 
race  so  nobly  died,  and  perpetuating  on  our  virgin  soil  African  slavery,  which  the 
world  is  clamoring  to  see  blotted  out  ? 

My  lord,  do  you  plead  that  the  necessity  of  slave-grown  cotton  calls  for  so  das 
tardly  a  betrayal  by  yourself  of  all  the  sonrenirs  of  your  life?  And  will  you,  to  ac 
complish  this  purpose,  trample  on  all  the  canons  of  international  law,  and  become 
public  robber  and  go  and  steal  this  cotton?  If  you  attempt  it,  will  you  succeed? 
How  much. cotton  would  you  get  before  your  ministry  went  down? — Before  you  lost 
a  market  for  your  commerce  with  twenty-three  million  freemen  ? — Before  our  bread- 
sUiffs,  which  are  now  keeping  the  wolf  away  from  British  doors,  would  reach  your 
shores  ?— Before  bread-riots  would  occur  throughout  the  British  Islands  which  would 


4l6  ENGLAND    OUR   STEP-MOTHER. 

on  such  a  course  of  hostility  and  inhumanity  at  any  other 
period  of  our  history  since  the  Peace  of  1815. 

No  other  thoughts  can  suggest  themselves  to  impar 
tial  men  that,  while  we  were  going  through  a  domestic 
trouble, — a  great  trouble,  which  filled  every  true  heart 
in  America  or  elsewhere  with  a  sadness  which  dragged 
us  "  down  to  the  depths  of  the  earth." 

Little  did  England  then  dream,  that  within  eight  short 

make  you  turn  pale  ? — Before  all  seas  would  swarm  with  our  privateers, — now  twenty- 
fold  more  numerous  than  in  1812,  when  you  found  them  too  fleet  and  too  strong  for 
you? — Before  you  encountered,  in  addition  to  two  millions  of  our  native  soldiers  and 
sailors,  half  a  million  of  adopted  citizens, — able-bodied  men,  formerly  British  sub 
jects,  and  burning  to  avenge  the  wrongs  of  centuries  inflicted  on  their  devoted 
Island  ? 

My  lord,  do  you  plead  that  the  exigencies  of  statesmanship  demand  that  you  should 
turn  the  arms  of  the  earth  against  you  ?  Do  you  suppose  that  NAPOLEON  would  lose 
such  a  chance  for  avenging  Waterloo?  Or  Russia  for  taking  Constantinople?  Or  all 
despotisms  for  crushing  your  supremacy  ?  Or  all  the  peoples  of  Europe  for  crushing 
monarchy  ? 

It  would  seem  that  England*  should  be  willing,  at  least,  to  let  us  manage  our  do 
mestic  affairs,  since  she  has  incurred  a  quarter  of  her  national  debt  in  interfering 
with  them; — that  she  should  not  now  take  to  her  arms  "the  foul  corpse  of  African 
slavery  on  our  soil,"  when  it  cost  her  five  hundred  million  dollars  to  get  rid  of  it  in 
her  own  territories  !  Should  not  the  Founder  of  Modern  Liberty  be  glad  to  see  how 
prosperously  the  brood  of  her  young  eagles  had  founded  an  empire-home  in  the  New 
World's  forests,  and  not  writhe,  and  chafe,  and  bark  at  and  hawk  at  our  nest,  till  she 
could  come  here  and  tear  it  to  pieces  ? 

The  time  had  gone  by,  we  hoped,  when  England,  our  oivn  mother,  would  try  to 
become  our  step-mother  !  Why  could  she  not  have  been  proud  in  the  pride  of  her 
daughter,  and  let  her  wear  the  jewels  she  had  herself  so  nobly  won?  And  yet  mali 
cious  people  say  that  England  acts  like  some  old  dame,  who,  after  parting  with  the 
title  to  a  daughter's  estate,  feels  that  she  has  still  some  reserved  right  left  to  inter 
fere  in  what  no  longer  concerns  her,  and  casts  now  and  then  an  envious  glance  at 
beauty  yet  unshrivelled,  and  conquests  forever  beyond  her  reach. 

Can  it  be,  my  lord,  that  such  unworthy  feelings  as  these  can  now  enter  your  heart 
as  an  English  statesman  ?  We  cannot  believe  it.  Can  you  desire  to  put  one  more 
great  trouble  on  the  heart  of  your  beloved,  widowed  queen?  We  will  not  believe  it. 

My  lord,  you  should  be  engaged  in  doing  some  good  to  the  people  of  your  own 
empire,  rather  than  in  trying  to  hurt  a  great,  a  kindred,  and  a  friendly  nation.  After 
attempting  so  long  to  be  a  statesman,  do  not  finish  by  being  only  a  ministerial  bully. 

I  am,  my  lord,  your  obedient  servant, 

C.  EDWARDS  LESTER. 


SUMNER  FOR  COLORED  TROOPS.  417 

years — and  chiefly  through  the  influence  of  CHARLES 
SUMNER — she  would  be  forced  to  yield  to  arbitration, 
and  branded  by  a-n  impartial  Tribunal  as  a  public  enemy 
of  the  United  States,  and  condemned  to  pay  exemplary 
damages  for  herv-crime. 

XLIIL 

On  the  26th  of  May — 1862 — of  the  previous  year,  Sen 
ator  SUMNER  had  introduced  a  Resolution  to  the  effect 
that  the  time  had  come  for  the  nation  to  invite  all  persons, 
without  distinction  of  color,  to  come  forward  every 
where  to  render  all  the  assistance  in  their  power  to  the 
cause  of  the  Union,  according  to  their  ability,  whether  by 
arms,  labor,  information,  or  in  any  other  way.  On  the 
1 7th  of  the  following  July,  an  Act  was  approved,  au 
thorizing  the  President  to  receive  into  the  service  of  the 
United  States,  persons  of  African  descent  who  might  be 
found  competent  to  aid  in  constructing  entrenchments, 
or  performing  camp  service  or  labor. 

This  was  the  beginning  of  a  wise  policy  in  our  legisla 
tion  regarding  the  employment  of  Colored  men.  In  the 
following  October,  at  Fanueil  Hall,  Mr.  SUMNER  had 
spoken  in  justification  of  a  direct  appeal  to  the  slaves  of 
Rebels :  but  this  was  on  all  sides  regarded  as  premature, 
at  least.  On  the  Qth  of  the  following  February,  1863, 
however,  he  introduced  a  bill  to  raise  additional  soldiers 
for  the  service  of  the  United  States,  and  to  accept  every 
able-bodied  free  male  person  of  African  descent,  of  the 
age  of  eighteen,  and  under  forty-five  years,  for  military 
service,  the  monthly  pay  of  such  free  persons  to  be  the 
same  as  that  of  volunteers  ;  provided,  that  the  whole 

number  thus  called  into  the  service  should  not  exceed 

27 


4i 8  AUTHOR'S  HISTORIC  STATEMENT. 

one  hundred  thousand  men.  But  the  Bill  was  not  reach 
ed  during  the  session.  Colored  volunteers  had,  how 
ever,  been  accepted  everywhere,  and  the  evidence  of 
their  bravery,  and  above  all,  their  patriotic  zeal,  was 
placed  beyond  criticism — it  was  above  praise. 

XLIV. 

When  the  policy  of  the  employment  of  African  troops 
was  first  being  agitated,  I  prepared  by  request,  the 
following  historic  statement  on  the  subject  which  Mr. 
LINCOLN  made  use  of  in  his  discussions  with  his  friends 
and  advisers,  and  which,  by  the  advice  of  Mr.  SUMNER, 
was  anonymously  printed  after  it  had  passed  his  thor 
ough  revision.  He  believed  it  would  fortify  his  position 
in  the  Senate,  and  Mr.  LINCOLN  with  his  Cabinet.  The 
result  justified  those  convictions. 

Those  who  have  declaimed  loudest  against  the  employment  of  negro 
troops  have  shown  a  lamentable  amount  of  ignorance,  and  an  equally 
lamentable  lack  of  common  sense.  They  know  as  little  of  the  military 
history  and  martial  qualities  of  the  African  race  as  they  do  of  their  own 
duties  as  commanders. 

All  distinguished  generals  of  modern  times  who  have  had  opportu 
nities  to  use  negro  soldiers,  have  uniformly  applauded  their  subordi 
nation,  bravery,-  and  powers  of  endurance.  Washington  solicited  the 
military  services  of  negroes  in  the  Revolution,  and  rewarded  them. 
Jackson  did  the  same  in  the  War  of  1812.  Under  both  those  great 
captains  the  negro  troops  fought  so  well  that  they  received  unstinted 
;praise. 

Bancroft,  in  speaking  of  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  (vol.  vii.  p.  421. 
'History  of  United  States),  says  : — 

"  Nor  should  history  forget  to  record  that  as  in  the  army  at  Cam 
bridge,  so  also  in  this  gallant  band,  the  free  negroes  of  the  colony  had 
their  representatives.  For  the  right  of  free  negroes  to  bear  arms  in  the 
public  defence  was  at  that  day  as  little  disputed  in  New  England  as  their 


NEGRO   TROOPS   IN   WASHINGTON'S   ARMY.  419 

other  rights.  They  took  their  places,  not  in  a  separate  corps,  but  in  the 
ranks  with  the  white  men  ;  and  their  names  may  be  read  on  the  pension- 
rolls  of  the  country  side  by  side  with  those  of  other  soldiers  of  the  Re 
volution." 

In  the  Memoir  of  Major  Samuel  Lawrence  (by  Rev.  Dr.  Lothrop,  pp. 
8,  9)  the  following  passage  occurs  : — 

"At  one  time  he  commanded  a  company  whose  rank  and  file  were 
all  negroes,  of  whose  courage,  military  discipline,  and  fidelity  he  always 
spoke  with  respect.  On  one  occasion,  being  out  reconnoitring  with 
this  company,  be  got  so  far  in  advance  of  his  command  that  he  was 
surrounded  and  on  the  point  of  being  made  prisoner  by  the  enemy. 
The  men,  soon  discovering  his  peril,  rushed  to  his  rescue,  and  fought 
with  the  most  determined  bravery  till  that  rescue  was  effectually 
secured." 

When  the  Committee  of  Conference  on  the  condition  of  the  army 
agreed  that  negro  soldiers  should  be  rejected  altogether,  Washington, 
on  the  3ist  of  December,  1775,  wrote  from  Cambridge  to  the  President 
of  Congress  as  follows  : — 

"  It  has  been  represented  to  me  that  the  free  negroes  who  have 
served  in  this  army  are  very  much  dissatisfied  at  being  discarded.  As 
it  is  to  be  apprehended  that  they  may  seek  employ  in  the  ministerial 
army,  I  have  presumed  to  depart  from  the  resolution  respecting  them, 
and  have  given  license  for  their  being  enlisted.  If  this  is  disapproved 
of  by  Congress,  I  will  put  a  stop  to  it." — Sparks's  Life  of  Washington, 
vol.  iii.,  pp.  218,  219. 

Congress  sustained  Washington  in  disregarding  the  resolution. 

XLV. 

The  secret  journals  of  Congress  (vol.  L,  pp.  107,  no),  March  29, 
1779,  show  that  the  States  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  were  "re 
commended  to  raise  immediately  three  thousand  able-bodied  negroes. 
That  every  negro  who  shall  well  and  faithfully  serve  as  a  soldier  to  the 
end  of  the  present  war,  and  shall  then  return  his  arms,  be  emancipated 
and  receive  the  sum  of  fifty  dollars." 

Washington,  Hamilton,  Greene,  Lincoln,  and  Lawrence,  warmly  ap 
proved  of  the  measure.  In  1 783  the  General  Assembly  of  Virginia 
passed  "An  act  directing  the  emancipation  of  certain  slaves  who  have 
served  as  soldiers  in  this  war." 


420          COLORED  HEROES  AT  RED  BANK. 

We  next  give  an  extract  from  an  act  of  the  "State  of  RJiodc  Island 
and  Providence  Plantations,  in  General  Assembly"  February  session, 
!778  : — "Whereas,  for  the  preservation  of  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the 
United  States,  it  is  necessary  that  the  whole  powers  of  Government 
should  be  exerted  in  recruiting  the  Continental  battalions  ;  and  whereas 
his  Excellency  General  Washington  hath  enclosed  to  this  State  a  pro 
posal,  made  to  him  by  Brigadier-General  Varnum,  to  enlist  into  the 
two  battalions,  raising  by  this  State,  such  slaves  as  should  be  willing  to 
enter  into  the  service ;  and  whereas  history  affords  us  frequent  prece 
dents  of  the  wisest,  the  freest  and  bravest  nations  having  liberated  their 
slaves  and  enlisted  them  as  soldiers  to  fight  in  defence  of  their  country  ; 
and,  also,  whereas  the  enemy,  with  a  great  force,  have  taken  possession 
of  the  capital  and  a  great  part  of  this  State,  and  this  State  is  obliged  to 
raise  a  very  considerable  number  of  troops  for  its  own  immediate  de 
fence,  whereby  it  is  in  a  manner  rendered  impossible  for  this  State  to 
furnish  recruits  for  the  said  two  battalions  without  adopting  the  said 
measure  so  recommended; 

"It  is  Voted  and  Resolved,  That  every  able-bodied  negro,  mulatto,  or 
Indian  man-slave  in  this  State  may  enlist  into  either  of  the  said  two 
battalions,  to  serve  during  the  continuance  of  the  present  war  with 
Great  Britain  ;  that  every  slave  so  enlisting  shall  be  entitled  to  and  re 
ceive  all  the  bounties,  wages,  and  encouragements  allowed  by  the  Con 
tinental  Congress  to  any  soldier  enlisting  in  their  service. 

"//  is  further  Voted  and  Resolved,  That  every  slave  so  enlisting 
shall,  upon  his  passing  muster  before  Colonel  Christopher  Green,  be 
immediately  discharged  from  the  service  of  his  master  or  mistress,  and 
be  absolutely  FREE,  as  though  he  had  never  been  encumbered  with 
any  kind  of  servitude  or  slavery." 

The  negroes  enlisted  under  this  act  were  the  men  who  immortalized 
themselves  at  Red  Bank. 

Arnold,  in  his  "History  of  Rhode  Island,"  vol.  ii.,  pp.  427,  428,  de 
scribing  the  "battle  of  Rhode  Island,"  fought  August  29,  1778,  says, 
"A  third  time  the  enemy,  with  desperate  courage  and  increased 
strength,  attempted  to  assail  the  redoubt,  and  would  have  carried  it,  but 
for  the  timely  aid  of  two  Continental  battalions  despatched  by  Sullivan 
to  support  his  almost  exhausted  troops.  It  was  in  repelling  these  furi 
ous  onsets  that  the  newly-raised  black  regiment,  under  Colonel  Green, 
distinguished  itself  by  deeds  of  desperate  valor.  Posted  behind  a 
thicket  in  the  valley,  they  three  times  drove  back  the  Hessians,  who 
charged  repeatedly  down  the  hill  to  dislodge  them." 


COMMODORE   CHAUNCEY'S  BLACK  SAILORS.  421 

Negroes  have  always  been  favorites  *  in  our  navy,  and  their  names 
always  entered  on  the  ships'  books  without  distinction.  Commodore 
Chauncey  thus  speaks  : — 

u.  j  regret  that  you  are  not  pleased  with  the  men  sent  you  by  Messrs. 
Champlin  and  Forrest,  for,  to  my  kno\yledge,  a  part  of  them  are  not 
surpassed  by  any  seamen  we  have  in  the  fleet  ;  and  I  have  yet  to  learn 
that  the  color  of  the  skin,  or  the  cut  and  trimmings  of  the  coat,  can 
affect  a  man's  qualifications  or  usefulness.  I  have  nearly  fifty  blacks 
on  board  of  this  ship,  and  many  of  them  are  among  my  best  men." 

In  October,  1814,  the  State  of  New  York  passed  an  act  to  authorize 
the  raising  of  two  regiments  of  men  of  color. 


XLVI. 

The  following  proclamation  and  address  of  General  Andrew  Jack 
son  covers  the  whole  ground,  and  breathes  the  magnanimous  spirit  of 
that  hero-patriot  : — 

"HEAD-QUARTERS,  7TH  MILITARY  DISTRICT. 
"MOBILE,  September  21,  1814. 

"  To  THE  FREE  COLORED  INHABITANTS  OF  LOUISIANA. 

"  Through  a  mistaken  policy,  you  have  heretofore  been  deprived  of 

*  "In  referring  to  Mr.  Wickliffe's  remarks  against  Generals  Butler  and  Hunter, 
he  (Mr.  Dunn)  pointed  to  the  fact  that  General  Jackson  employed  colored  soldiers 
in  the  defence  of  New  Orleans  and  complimented  them  upon  their  gallantry  and 
good  order.  Kentuckians  were  in  that  battle  with  black  men.  Commodore  Perry 
fought  his  battles  on  Lake  Erie  with  the  help  of  black  men  ;  and  black  men,  too, 
fought  in  the  Revolutionary  War.  Commodores  Stringham  and  Woodhull  severally 
testify  to  the  valuable  services  of  the  blacks  in  the  navy,  saying  they  are  as  brave  as 
any  who  ever  stood  at  the  guns.  They  fought  before  Vicksburg,  and  elsewhere. 

"  The  rebels  employ  them  wherever  they  can.  When  they  cannot  get  them 
willingly,  they  force  them,  as  they  did  at  Yorktown,  to  take  the  front  rank  of  danger. 
Why  not  now  not  only  educate  them  to  the  use  of  arms,  but  prepare  them  to  hold  the 
Southern  country  wrested  from  rebels?  He  did  not  want  the  white  man  to  go  down 
and  perish  there.  The  negro  population,  armed,  can  hold  the  traitors  in  subjection. 
The  gentleman  from  Kentucky  was  apprehensive  if  arms  were  placed  ift  the  hands  of 
blacks  that  they  would  commit  great  barbarities.  *  What,'  he  asked, — replying  to 
that  remark, — '  had  become  of  the  Christian  teachings  which  were  said  to  prevail  in 
the  South?'  He  said  that  General  Meigs  had  informed  him  additional  numbers  of 
blacks  were  required  to  man  the  ships,  this  class  of  persons  having  proved  highly 
valuable  in  the  naval  service." 


422  GEN.  JACKSON'S  PROCLAMATION,  IN  1814. 

a  participation  in  the   glorious  struggle  for  national  rights  in  which  our 
country  is  engaged.     This  no  longer  shall  exist. 

"  As  sons  of  freedom,  you  are  now  called  upon  to  defend  our  most 
inestimable  blessing.  As  Americans,  your  country  looks  with  con 
fidence  to  her  adopted  children  for  a  valorous  support,  as  a  faithful 
return  for  the  advantages  enjoyed  under  her  mild  and  equitable  govern 
ment.  As  fathers,  husbands,  and  brothers,  you  are  summoned  to  rally 
around  the  standard  of  the  eagle,  to  defend  all  which  is  dear  in 
existence. 

"  Your  country,  although  calling  for  your  exertions,  does  not  wish 
you  to  engage  in  her  cause  without  amply  remunerating  you  for  the 
services  rendered.  Your  intelligent  minds  are  not  to  be  led  away  by 
false  representations.  Your  love  of  honor  would  cause  you  to  despise 
the  man  who  should  attempt  to  deceive  you.  In  the  sincerity  of  a 
soldier,  and  the  language  of  truth,  I  address  you. 

"  To  every  noble-hearted,  generous  freeman  of  color,  volunteering 
to  serve  during  the  present  contest  with  Great  Britain,  and  no  longer, 
there  will  be  paid  the  same  bounty  in  money  and  lands  now  received 
by  the  white  soldiers  of  the  United  States, — viz.  :  one  hundred  and 
twenty-four  dollars  in  money,  and  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  land. 
The  non-commissioned  officers  and  privates  will  also  be  entitled  to  the 
same  monthly  pay  and  daily  rations,  and  clothes,  furnished  to  any 
American  soldier. 

"  On  enrolling  yourselves  in  companies,  the  major-general  command 
ing  will  select  officers  for  your  government  from  your  white  fellow-citi 
zens.  Your  non-commissioned  officers  will  be  appointed  from  among 
yourselves. 

"Due  regard  will  be  paid  to  the  feelings  of  freemen  and  soldiers. 
You  will  not,  by  being  associated  with  white  men  in  the  same  corps,  be 
exposed  to  improper  comparisons  or  unjust  sarcasm.  As  a  distinct, 
independent  battalion  or  regiment,  pursuing  the  path  of  glory,  you  will, 
undivided,  receive  the  applause  and  gratitude  of  your  countrymen. 

"To  assure  you  of  the  sincerity  of  my  intentions,  and  my  anxiety  to 
engage  your  invaluable  services  to  our  country,  I  have  communicated 
my  wishes  to  the  Governor  of  Louisiana,  who  is  fully  informed  as  to 
the  manner*  of  enrolment,  and  will  give  you  every  necessary  information 
on  the  subject  of  this  address.  "  ANDREW  JACKSON, 

"  Major-  General  commanding" 
JViles's  Register^  vol.  vii.,  p.  205. 


JACKSON'S  ADDRESS  TO  COLORED  TROOPS.          423 


XLVII. 

At  the  close  of  a  review  of  the  white  and  colored  troops  in  New 
Orleans,  on  Sunday,  December  18,  1814,  General  Jackson's  address  to 
the  troops  was  read  by  Edward  Livingston,  one  of  his  aids,  and  the 
following  is  the  portion  addressed  : — 

"To  THE  MEN  OF  COLOR. — Soldiers  !  From  the  shores  of  Mobile  I 
collected  you  to  arms, — I  invited  you  to  share  in  the  perils,  and  to 
divide  the  glory  of  your  white  countrymen.  I  expected  much  from 
you  ;  for  I  was  not  uninformed  of  those  qualities  which  must  render 
you  so  formidable  to  an  invading  foe.  I  knew  that  you  could  endure 
hunger  and  thirst,  and  all  the  hardships  of  war.  I  knew  that  you 
loved  the  land  of  your  nativity,  and  that,  like  ourselves,  you  had  to 
defend  all  that  is  most  dear  to  man.  But  you  surpass  my  hopes.  I 
have  found  in  you,  united  to  these  qualities,  that  noble  enthusiasm 
which  impels  to  great  deeds. 

"  Soldiers  !  The  President  of  the  United  States  shall  be  informed  of 
your  conduct  on  the  present  occasion ;  and  the  voice  of  the  represen 
tatives  of  the  American  nation  shall  applaud  your  valor,  as  your 
general  now  praises  your  ardor.  The  enemy  is  near.  His  sails  cover 
the  lakes.  But  the  brave  are  united ;  and  if  he  finds  us  contending 
among  ourselves,  it  will  be  for  the  prize  of  valor,  and  fame,  its  noble 
reward." — Aries's  Register,  vol.  vii.,  pp.  345,  346.* 

But  the  course  of  events  has  pretty  effectually  changed  public  opinion 
on  the  subject.  From  Major-General  Hunter's  department,  f  and 

*  For  many  of  the  foregoing  data  I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  George  Livermore's  re 
cent  and  valuable  work,  entitled  "An  Historical  Research  respecting  the  Opinions  of 
the  Founders  of  the  Republic  on  Negroes  as  Slaves,  as  Citizens,  and  as  Soldiers." 

f  In  a  letter  from  General  Hunter,  written  from  South  Carolina,  Feb.  n,  1863, 
to  a  friend,  he  says  :*— 

"  Finding  that  the  able-bodied  negroes  did  not  enter  the  military  service  as  rapidly 
as  could  be  wished,  I  have  resolved,  and  so  ordered,  that  all  who  are  not  regularly 
employed  in  the  Quartermaster's  Department,  or  as  officers'  servants,  shall  be  drafted. 
In  this  course  I  am  sustained  by  the  views  of  all  the  more  intelligent  among  them. 

"In  drafting  them  I  was  actuated  by  several  motives, — the  controlling  one  being 
that  I  regarded  their  service  as  a  military  necessity  if  this  war  is  to  be  ended  in  a 
triumph  of  the  Union  arms.  Subordinate  to  this  consideration,  I  regard  the  strict 
discipline  of  military  life  as  the  best  school  in  which  this  people  can  be  gradually 
lifted  toward  our  higher  civilization;  and  their  enrolment  in  the  negro  brigade  will 
have  the  further  good  effect  of  rendering  mere  servile  insurrection,  unrestrained  by 


424  ADVANTAGES   OF   COLORED    SOLDIERS. 

from  other  quarters,  the  official  reports  of  the  services  of  negro"  regi 
ments  in  the  field  are  highly  satisfactory.  The  superiority  of  African 
troops  has  been  completely  demonstrated  in  several  important  re 
spects. 

1.  They  have  nothing  to  fear  from  those  Southern  diseases  which 
prove  so  fatal  to  Northern  men. 

2.  They  can  endure  greater  hardships  and  exposures,  in  camp,  on  the 
march,  and  on  the  field  of  action. 

3.  They  are  more  readily  reduced  to  camp-discipline,  and,  from  life 
long  habits  of  unquestioning  obedience,  are  by  no  means  likely  to  be 
guilty  of  insubordination ;  while  desertion — especially  in  slave-districts 
— will  be  almost  unknown. 

Finally,  they  fight  not  only  for  freedom  and  all  the  blessings  it  brings, 
but  to  escape  the  ignominious  and  dreadful  death  they  must  endure  if 
they  once  more  fall  into  the  hands  of  their  revengeful  task-masters. 

But  other  considerations  of  the  gravest  magnitude,  must  enter  into 
the  general  estimate. 

Whenever  or  however  this  war  may  end,  nobody  supposes  it  will 
leave  us  without  a  military  and  naval  force  strong  enough  to  protect 
ourselves  against  insurrection  at  home,  and  aggression  or  insult  from 
abroad. 

Our  standing  army  might  ultimately  be  made  up  chiefly  of  emancipat 
ed  negroes ;  and  so  may  our  navy  ;  and  they  would  in  time  make  such  a 
military  and  maritime  force  as  never  has  been  seen. 

Since  the  days  of  slavery  are  numbered  in  the  rebel  States,  where  the 
institution  falls  with  the  fall  of  the  rebellion,  and  in  the  border  States, 
where  the  people,  under  an  enlightened  policy,  are  abolishing  it  them 
selves,  it  may  require  a  vast  armed  force  to  enable  the  Government  to 
carry  out  such  mighty  changes  as  will  necessarily  attend  the  reconstruc 
tion  of  Southern  society. 

For  this  stupendous  work  the  negroes  will  be  the  reliable  instruments 
of  the  Government  in  vindicating  the  strength,  the  honor,  and  the  glory 
of  the  republic.  Another  heavy  force  will  be  required  in  rebuilding 
the  overthrown  structures,  and  repairing  the  waste  places  of  war's  deso 
lations. 

the  laws  and  usages  of  war,  less  likely.  If  any  further  argument  were  needed  to 
justify  my  course,  it  would  be  found  in  my  deep  conviction  that  freedom  (like  all 
other  blessings)  can  never  be  justly  appreciated  except  by  men  who  have  been  taught 
the  sacrifices  which  are  its  price.  In  this  course,  let  me  add,  I  expect  to  be  sustained 
by  all  the  intelligent  and  practically-minded  friends  of  the  enfranchised  bondman." 


180,000   COLORED   TROOPS   IN   THE, UNION   ARMY.        425 

It  is  not  improbable,  too,  that  another  vast  army  may  be  needed  to 
build  the  Pacific  Railroad,  ship-canals,  and  other  great  works  of  protec 
tion  and  defence.* 

And  he  would  be  both  a  short-sighted  and  sanguine  optimist  who 
should  leave  out  of  the  horoscope  of  the  next  few  years,  the  contingen 
cies,  if  not  the  probabilities,  of  a  collision  with  Great  Britain.  That 
struggle  is  as  inevitable  as  this  rebellion  was.  All  the  issues  have  been 
gathering,  and  the  result  must  come,  unless  through  a  premature  flash 
of  the  millennium,  all  our  difficulties  should  be  settled  by  Arbitration, 
which  Heaven  grant,  although  it  seems  like  praying  for  the  "  happy 
thousand  years."  No  mortal  power  can  protract  it  forever.  We  must 
be  prepared  for  it,  so  that  it  can  at  no  time  take  us  by  surprise.  This 
is  now  the  feeling  among  all  parties  and  sections  throughout  the  coun 
try.  This  feeling  will  not  change.  Nations  never  forgive  wrongs  or 
insults.  Ours  must  and  will  be  avenged.  The  African  race  emanci 
pated  will  hereafter  constitute  the  great  body-guard  of  the  Union. 

XLVIII. 

In  his  American  Conflict,  Mr.  GREELEY  estimates  the 
number  of  colored  troops  in  the  service,  from  first  to 
last,  at  180,000,  of  whom  29,298  died:  the  largest  mili- 

*  In  speaking  on  the  subject  of  defence  for  the  Northern  frontier,  Senator  Arnold, 
of  Rhode  Island,  used  the  following  striking  language  : — 

He  said,  "It  is  the  duty  of  the  statesman  not  only  to  crush  the  rebellion,  but  to 
cement  the  Union.  This  canal  will  revive  the  idea  of  national  unity  ^ — the  grand 
idea  which  has  inspired  the  vast  and  sublime  efforts  of  the  people  to  restore  the  na 
tional  unity.  This  canal  will  be  an  east-and-west  Mississippi.  He  spoke  of  the  un 
qualified  devotion  of  the  West  to  the  Union.  There  were  rebels  in  the  West,  and 
elsewhere,  who  are  seeking  to  alienate  the  West  from  the  East.  To  this  traitorous 
band  was  addressed  the  proclamation  of  the  rebel  General  Bragg.  How  the  West 
responds,  the  rebels  learned  from  the  mouths  of  her  cannon  at  Murfreesborough. 
The  soldiers  of  the  East  and  the  West,  fighting  together  on  many  a  glorious  and  san 
guinary  field,  will  with  their  blood  cement  a  union  and  a  nationality  so  strong  and 
deep  that  no  sectional  appeal  can  ever  shake  the  loyalty  of  the  glorious  band  of  loyal 
States.  The  West  will  regard  as  traitors  alike  those  who  suggest  a  peace  with  any 
portion  of  the  Mississippi  in  rebel  hands,  and  those  who  suggest  a  Union  with  patri 
otic,  brave  New  England  left  out. 

"  The  Northern  frontier  fhust  be  defended  ;  and  this  canal  is  the  cheapest  and  best 
means  of  defending  it.  While  the  Atlantic  shore  is  protected  from  any  foreign  ene 
my  by  three  thousand  miles  of  ocean,  by  forts  and  fortifications  from  Maine  to  £le»- 
rida,  by  a  navy  which  has  cost  hundreds  of  millions,  the  Northern  frontier,  not  less 


426  SENATOR   ARNOLD    ON   PUBLIC    DEFENCE. 

tary  African  force  we  have  any  knowledge  of  in  history, 
ever  mustered  into  the  service  of  any  government,  and 
the  proportion  of  loss  being-  very  much  larger  than 
among  our  White  troops,  of  which  only  one  in  ten  died 
in  the  service,  while  of  the  Black  troops,  the  loss  was 
nearly  one  to  six. 

This  does  not  look  like  a  record  of  cowardice,  or  inca 
pacity.  It  is  believed  that,  take  their  record  all  through, 
it  was  unsurpassed  in  courage,  fidelity,  and  patriotism  ; 
while  in  steadiness,  patience,  and  subordination,  it  was 
perhaps  unrivalled.  Nor  should  another  thing  be  over 
looked,  although  it  can  be  easily  accounted  for.  It  im 
proves  the  manner,  the  spirit,  and  the  whole  bearing  of 


important,  is  entirely  defenceless,  and  within  easy  cannon-range  for  hundreds  of  miles 
of  a  foreign  territory. 

"The  North-west  cheerfully  pays  her  proportion  for  the  defence  of  the  Atlantic, 
and  will  pay  further  large  appropriations  now  required.  But  we  ask,  in  justice,  that 
the  Northern  frontier  should  be  secured. 

"  He  then  read  a  memorial  of  ex-President  Fillmore  and  others,  showing  the  ex 
posed  condition  of  Lake  Erie,  and  showed  that  the  lakes  by  the  Canadian  canals 
were  accessible  to  British  gunboats,  and  the  lake  cities  and  commerce  were  exposed 
to  destruction.  This  canal  will  enable  us  to  place  our  gunboats  on  the  lakes.  He 
read  a  letter  from  Admiral  Porter,  showing  that  we  had  now  afloat  more  than  fifty 
gunboats  which  could  pass  from  the  ocean  to  the  lakes  by  this  canal. 

"  He  then  presented  the  importance — fiscal,  commercial,  and  agricultural — of  the 
interests  thus  seeking  protection. 

"  Fifty-eight  million  bushels  of  bread  stuffs  were  shipped  from  Chicago  alone  during 
the  past  year.  The  commerce  of  the  lakes  was  at  least  four  hundred  millions  per  an 
num.  Corn,  since  cotton  had  committed  felo  de  se,  was  now  king,  and  kept  the 
peace  between  Europe  and  America.  This  enlarged  canal  is  the  cheapest  mode  of 
defending  the  lakes.  The  whole  cost  of  the  canal  was  only  thirteen  million  dollars. 
This  will  turn  the  Mississippi  into  the  lakes,  and  unite  forever  the  East  and  the  West. 
Every  dollar  thus  expended  in  defence  cheapens  transportation. 

"  The  capacity  of  the  proposed  Illinois  Canal  will  be  twelve  times  that  of  the  Erie 
Canal.  The  largest  steamers  which  navigate  the  Mississippi  will  steam  directly  to 
Lake  Michigan.  These  grand  results  cost  only  thirteen  millions.  It  will  rapidly 
pay  for  itself,  and  is  then  to  leave  a  grand  national  freerhighway.  It  will  add  to  the 
taxable  property  of  the  Union  as  much,  or  more,  than  the  Erie  Canal  has  done.  It 
will'  give  stability  to  our  Government,  and  add  to  the  national  wealth.  It  will  in 
crease  both  our  ability  to  borrow  money  and  to  pay  it." 


IMPROVEMENT   IN   THE   COLORED   RACE.  42/ 

any  man  to  enter  a  military  service  ;  but  the  effect  upon 
the  Black  troops  was  still  more  perceptible.  Inured  to 
obedience,  and  gifted  with  intuitive  quickness  and  power 
of  imitation,  they  became  more  plastic  in  evolution : 
while  their  former  social  inferiority  had  inspired  them 
with  an  ambition  they  had  never  felt  before,  to  improve 
their  chances  for  social  elevation.  There  was  more 
room  for  improvement,  it  will  be  said.  Granted.  But 
herein  is  conceded  all  that  is  claimed  by  the  friends  of 
the  Colored  race — capacity  for  improvement,  quickness 
of  perception,  and  readiness  to  embrace  chances.  Cer 
tainly  we  have  no  knowledge,  in  human  records,  of  a 
case  on  so  large  a  scale,  of  the  sitdden  transition  of  a  vast 
community  from  a  state  of  abject  servitude  to  one  of 
political  equality.  It  was  claimed  to  be  a  new  and 
doubtful  experiment — and  it  was.  But  the  result  sur 
passed  the  expectations  of  its  best  prophets.  The 
change  was  instantly  visible ;  not  only  in  the  Southern 
districts  where  shackles  were  struck  off  by  a  lightning 
blow,  but  it  was  seen  everywhere,  through  the  North, 
East,  and  West ;  in  every  community  the  negro  popula 
tion  began  to  show  signs  of  resurrection.  New  ambition 
fired  the  general  body.  They  all  seemed  to  act  upon 
their  good  behavior,  and  to  feel  that  the  better  they 
acted,  the  more  they  helped  their  cause.  And  this 
"  Hope  the  charmer,"  was  the  inspiring  angel.  Vice 
perceptibly  diminished  among  them.  Habits  of  industry, 
sobriety,  frugality,  and  thrift ;  frequency  in  attending 
schools ;  tidying  up  of  apartments,  and  their  surroundings  ; 
better  dressing  of  men,  women,  and  children ;  a  quicker 
sympathy  with  all  the  interests  of  society  ;  grateful  re 
cognition  of  new  kindnesses  shown  to  them,  instead  of 
a  spirit  of  assumption,  or  gratified  vanity  : — 


428  AN  EVENING'S  READING  TO  SUMNER. 

These  were  some  of  the  fresh  aspects  which  began 
to  be  seen  wherever  the  Colored  people  were  found ; 
and  it  gave  good  ground  for  encouragement  to  assist 
them.  A  new  responsibility  was  rolled  upon  the  whole 
rank  and  file  of  the  body  of  White  society.  Even  those 
who  had  been  the  least  hopeful,  not  to  say  the  most 
provokingly  prophetic  of  evil  omen,  found  themselves 
insensibly  participating  in  the  general  feeling  of  sym 
pathy  and  respect.  And  so  the  five  millions  of  Ameri 
cans  of  African  descent  halted  suddenly  on  their  dreary 
and  downward  road,  and  with  a  "  right  about  face," 
they  began  their  "  forward  march." 


XLIX. 

No  Senator  entered  more  warmly  into  any  measure 
that  was  proposed  for  the  efficiency  of  our  system  of 
military  hospitals,  nor  manifested  a  deeper  sympathy 
for  disabled  soldiers.  One  evening  as  he  was  resting 
on  his  sofa  from  a  very  wearying  day  in  the  Senate,  I  read 
to  him  from  "  My  War  Note-Book,"  the  following 
passages  of  scenes  I  had  recently  witnessed  in  the  hos 
pitals  around  Washington. 

Heroism   in  the  Hospital. — It  was  as  often  witnessed  there,  and  in 

sublimer  forms,  perhaps,  than  in  the  field. We  came  to  the  body  of 

a  non-commissioned  officer,  a  fine,  large  man,  who,  during  the  last  few 
hours,  had  become  delirious.  His  thigh-bone  had  been  shattered  by  a 
Minie-ball  so  high  up,  that  amputation  could  not  be  performed.  So 
there  was  nothing  left  for  him,  but  to  lie  there  and  die.  Watching  the 
terrible  hues  of  mortification  coming  upon  his  limb,  feeling  the  poison 
steal  up  towards  his  vitals,  seizing  and  deadening  new  tissues  every 
hour — it  proved  too  fearful  for  even  his  vigorous  frame.  He  would 
utter  no  cry  nor  complaint,  and  his  mind,  with  the  suppressed  torture, 
flew  to  insanity  for  relief.  As  we  approached  his  cot,  he  fixed  his  cold, 


HEROISM   IN   THE   HOSPITAL.  429 

despairing  eyes  upon  us,  and  pointing  back  over  his  shoulder,  ex 
claimed,  "Do  you  see  him?  Old  Death,  there,  sitting  at  the  head 
board  and  laughing?  A  grim  army-joker,  in  truth  !  The  other  night  I 
felt  a  cold  touch,  and  it  woke  me.  '  The  moon  flung  in  a  bar  of  light, 
and  I  saw  Old  Death  feeling  of  my  wound.  His  icy  touch  benumbed 
it  ;  and  the  next  time  I  woke,  his  hand  was  slowly  closing  round  my 
leg.  So  it  goes  !  He'll  be  soon  pulling  at  my  heart-strings."  The 
maniac  then  stopped,  as  if  trying  to  remember.  After  a  low,  sardonic 
laugh,  he  continued  :  "  I  plead  with  him  ;  I  told  him  they'd  be  lonely 
at  the  old  home  in  Illinois.  '  A  wife  and  child  are  pleasanter  than  a 
tomb,'  I  said.  He  laughed  at  that."  We  had  to  leave  him  ;  and 
what  a  sight  it  was  !  The  rottenness  of  the  grave,  and  the  vitality  of 
a  strong  man,  joined  in  a  terrific  grapple  on  a-  hospital  bed.  Life,  with 
the  full  pulse  of  five-and-twenty  years,  had  marshalled  all  its  forces, 
and  been  defeated.  His  name  was  C.  P.  Dunster,  of  Illinois. 

A  noble  young  fellow  in  the  Douglass  Hospital  had  been  injured  by 
the  passage  of  a  shell  near  his  head.  Shortly  after,  a  solid  shot  carried 
away  his  left  arm.  He  was  well  treated  on  the  field,  and  sent  to 
Washington  for  recovery.  Here,  the  effect  of  the  concussion  of  that 
screaming  shell,  began  to  show  itself  on  the  brain.  He  became 
delirious.  Watching  by 'him  one  night,  I  took  down  some  of  his  strange 
ravings: — "No!  I  won't  go  home  till  the  Union  is  safe.  I'd  rather 
die  here,  by  the  roots  of  this  old  tree,  and  dig  my  own  grave,  than  have 
any  croaker  in  Wisconsin  say  that  /  let  the  old  flag  drop  !  Not  I  ! 
Bring  it  out !  Let  me  see  it  once  more  !  Now  I  am  ready  for  the 
last  charge — one  more  chance  at  the  rebels  !" — and  springing  from  the 
bed,  he  plunged  forward.  I  caught  him,  and  laid  him  down  gently. 
A  quiver  went  through  his  body,  a  flash  came  from  his  beautiful  face, 
and  every  muscle  fell.  The  pulse  had  stopped. 

"  He  slept  his  last  sleep,  he  had  fought  his  last  battle ; 
No  sound  could  awake  him  to  glory  again." 


L. 

Another  youthful  soldier,  slowly  coming  up  from  what  he  called 
"that  Chickahominy  fever —  '  "  Don't  you  ever  get  disheartened  ?" 
"Yes;  once  in  a  while,  about  myself,  while  I  am  here  alone,  after 
midnight ;  it  seems  so  long  before  daylight.  I  never  was  sick  before. 
I  may  be  able  to  fight  again  yet — but,  disheartened  about  our  great 


430  DYING   AWAY   FROM   HOME. 

cause? — Never  !  Why  shouldn't  /stand  by  the  old  flag,  as  well  as  any 
other  man  ?  But  if  our  whole  army  sinks  into  the  earth,  the  cause  is 
just  as  safe  as  ever.  I  believe  in  a  God — my  mother  taught  me  that ; 
and  He  can't  afford  to  let  this  country  go  down."  And  as  he  heroically 
lifted  his  clinched  fist,  his  wrist  was  so  thin  and  white  the  gaslight 
shone  through  it. 

"  The  battle  of  Williamsburg  was  over,— the  rebels  driven  from  the 
field  ;  the  war-storm  hushed,  and  the  sad  duty  of  caring  for  our 
wounded,  and  burying  our  dead  remained  to  be  performed.  Groping 
our  way  through  the  darkness,  we  came  upon  the  body  of  a  pale, 
slender,  beardless  boy,  a  member  of  Co.  I,  37tlv  Regiment,  N.  Y. 
Volunteers— one  of  hundreds  who  had  marched  from  their  beautiful  hill- 
girt  homes  in  Cattaraugus  County.  We  raised  him  up.  He  was  not 
dead,  but  badly  wounded.  On  carrying  him  to  our  improvised  hospi 
tal,  the  surgeon  pronounced  his  wound  mortal.  He  heard  the  decision  ; 
and  although  suffering  greatly,  not  a  sigh,  or  groan,  or  even  an  ex 
clamation  of  surprise,  passed  his  lips.  He  was  asked  if  he  desired  to 
send  any  message  to  his  family.  I  shall  never  forget  how  his  mild  blue 
eye  lit  up.  After  a  moment's  pause  he  said,  'Tell  them  that  Lafayette 
Morrow,  the  boy  soldier,  died  at  his  post,  and  sends  his  love.'  Turning 
over  with  a  deep  sigh,  he  added  wearily,  '  I  think  I  will  sleep  now.'  He 
did—'  the  sleep -that  knows  no  waking.'  " 

During  the  desperate  fight  at  Williamsbtirg,  while  the  Color-company 
of  the  57th  New  York  went  rushing  over  the  bodies  of  the  dying  and 
dead,  to  take  the  place  of  a  New  Jersey  regiment  which  had  fallen  back 
half  slaughtered,  one  gallant  fellow,  who  had  been  carried  to  the  rear, 
was  seen  leaning  against  a  tree,  swinging  one  bleeding  arm,  while  the 
other  hung  shattered  and  dangling  by  his  side,  screaming  out  in  his 
death-agony,  "  There  goes  the  old  flag  !  Hold  her  up,  boys, — forever  !  " 
and  fell  a  senseless,  gory  mass  at  the  roots  of  the  tree.  In  returning 
from  the  field  from  which  the  rebels  had  been  driven,  two  men  left  the 
ranks  to  look  after  the  dead  soldier.  They  dug  his  grave  where  he  lay, 
and  long  before  now  the  oak  "  hath  shot  his  roots  abroad,  and  pierced 
his  mould." 

I  have  seen  many  who  had  seldom  thought  about  their  own  death— 
'boys,  who  left  homes  of  luxury,  fondled  by  sister's  caresses,  and 
mother's  love,  brought  from  the  battle-field,  and  laid  down  in  a 
hospital  to  die.  When  the  fading  twilight  of  a  joyous  youth  was  passing 
into  the  deep  eclipse  of  death's  shadow  as  it  moved  out  from  the 
unknown  land,  those  who  had  thought  of  the  last  hour  so  sure  to  come, 


SCENES   IN   THE   WASHINGTON   HOSPITALS.  431 

and  grown  familiar  with  what  cannot  be  seen  till  we  meet  it — those  few 
who  had  been  introduced  to  the  far-off  future  till  their  Father's  house 
became  their  home — such  boys,  and  the  thoughtless  ones,  too,  all  had 
one  solicitude  alike — "  Land  where  my  fathers  died — save  her,  oh 

God  !" Young  Osgood  was  buried  at  the  Soldiers'  Home.     Before 

recovering  his  body,  they  had  to  open  seven  coffins,  and  when  they  at 
last  reached  the  dust  of  the  loved  one,  another  name  was  inscribed  on 
the  case.  Oh — to  gather  the  ashes  of  a  stranger,  when  the  breaking 
heart  can  be  healed  only  by  the  last  act  of  affection  done  to  the  de 
parted  loved  one. 

LI. 

The  surgeon  said,  "  He  can  hardly  live." 

He  laid  the  hand  down  softly,  and  left  this  patient,  to  pass  through 
the  ward. 

It  seemed  to  say  that  all  that  earth  could  do  had  been  done,  to  save 
the  life  of  the  gallant  young  soldier.  I  followed  the  surgeon  a  few  steps 
on  the  routine  of  duty.  We  stopped,  and  looked  each  other  in  the 
face.  He  knew  I  wanted  to  know  the  whole  truth. 

"  Must  this  boy  die  ?  " 

"  There  is  a  shadow  of  a  chance.     1  will  come  again  after  midnight." 

I  went  back,  with  a  heavy  heart,  to  the  cot  we  had  left,  and,  knowing 
something  of  hospitals  and  dying  men,  I  sat  down  to  wait  and  see 
what  new  symptoms  would  occur,  with  the  full  directions  of  the  surgeon 
in  any  event. 

The  opiate,  or  whatever  it  may  have  been,  which  I  had  last  adminis 
tered,  could  not  take  effect  at  once  ;  and,  somewhat  worn  out  with  the 
day's  labors,  I  sat  down  to  think.  To  sleep,  was  out  of  the  question ; 
for  I  had  become  so  deeply  interested  in  this  young  man  it  seemed  to 
me  I  could  not  give  him  up.  *  * 

It  was  nearly  midnight.  The  gas  had  been  turned  off  just  enough  to 
leave  the  light  needed,  and  twilight  was  grateful  to  the  sick-room  ;  for 
in  this  vast  chamber  there  were  more  than  two  hundred  sick  men. 
Now  and  then  came  a  suppressed  moan  from  one  couch,  or  a  low  plaint 
of  hopeless  pain, — while  at  intervals  thrilled  from  the  high  ceiling  the 
shrill  scream  of  agony.  But  all  the  while  the  full  harvest-moon  was 
pouring  in  all  the  lustrous  sympathy  and  effulgence  it  could  give,  as  it 
streamed  over  the  marble  pile  called  the  Patent  Office,  the  unfinished 
north  wing  of  which  had  been  dedicated  to  this  house  of  suffering. 


432  A   BRAVE   ONEIDA   COUNTY   BOY. 

Almost  noiselessly,  the  doors  of  this  ward  opened  every  few  moments, 
for  the  gentle  tread  of  the  night  nurses,  who  came,  in  their  sleepless 
vigils,  to  see  if  in  these  hours  they  could  render  some  service  to  the 
stricken,  the  fallen,  and  yet  not  comfortless. 

Leaving  my  young  friend  for  a  few  moments,  I  walked  through  the 
north  aisle  ;  and  it  seemed  to  me — so  perfect  was  the  regime  of  the 
hospital,  so  grand  were  its  architectural  proportions — more  like  walking 
through  some  European  cathedral  by  moonlight,  than  through  a  place 
for  sick  soldiers.  The  silence  greater  than  speech,  the  suffering  unex 
pressed,  the  heroism  which  did  not  utter  one  complaint,  the  complete 
ness  of  the  whole  system  of  care  and  curative  process,  made  one  of 
those  sights  and  scenes  which  I  would  not  tear  away  from  my  memory 
if  I  could ;  for  they  have  mingled  themselves  with  associations  that  will 
link  each  month  and  year  of  time  to  come  with  all  the  months  and 
years  gone  before  them. 

LII. 

I  felt  a  strange  interest  in  this  young  man,  whom  I  had  left  in  what 
I  supposed  was  his  last  quiet  slumber  ;  and  yet  I  knew  he  would  wake 
once  more  before  he  died.  I  approached  his  cot  again.  He  was 
still  sleeping,  and  so  tranquilly  I  felt  a  little  alarmed  lest  he  might 
never  wake,  till  I  touched  his  pulse  and  found  it  still  softly  beating. 

I  let  him  sleep,  and  thought  I  would  sit  by  his  side  till  the  surgeon 
came. — 

I  took  a  long,  free  breath,  for  I  supposed  it  was  all  hopelessly  over. 
Then  I  thought  of  his  strange  history  : — I  knew  it  well. 

He  was  born  not  far  from  Trenton  Falls, — the  youngest  son,  among 
several  brothers,  of  one  of  the  brave  tillers  of  that  hard  soil.  He  had 
seen  his  family  grow  up  nobly  and  sturdily,  under  the  discipline  of  a* 
good  religion  and  good  government,  and  with  a  determination  to  defend 
both.  When  his  country's  troubles  began,  his  first  impulses  thus  found 
expression  to  his  brothers  : — "  Let  me  go  ;  for  you  are  all  married  ; 
and  if  I  fall,  no  matter." 

He  went.  He  had  followed  the  standard  of  the  Republic  into  every 
battle-field  where  the  struggle  carried  him,  till,  worn  out,  but  not 
wounded,  he  was  borne  to  this  hospital  in  Washington,  a  sick  boy.  He 
seemed  to  have  a  charmed  life,  for  on  several  occasions  his  comrades 
had  been  shot  dead  or  wounded  on  either  side  ;  and  when  his  last  car 
tridge  had  done  execution,  he  carried  off  two  of  his  wounded  companions 


THE   TWO   LOADSTONES — LOVE,    COUNTRY.  433 

from  the  field,  bearing  them  and  their  muskets  to  the  rear, — if  there 
were  a  rear  in  the  flight  from  the  Bull  Run  of  July,  '61, — and  nourished 
and  watched  and  stood  by  these  comrades  till  they  died,  and  then  got 
the  help  of  a  farmer  to  carry  them  with  his  cart,  a  whole  day  afterward, 
to  be  buried  in  a  place  which  he  chose. 

This  boy's  example  had  inspired  that  farmer  with  such  benevolence 
— if  he  were  not  inspired  by  patriotism  already — that  he  made  honored 
graves  for  them  ;  and  the  writer  of  this  work  knows  where  their  ashes 
res't. 

When  this  was  all  over,  the  boy  came  back,  as  a  kind  of  rear-guard, 
of  one,  in  the  flight  of  the  army  of  the  Potomac,  and,  having  reached 
the  city  of  Washington  and  reported  himself  to  his  commander,  fell 
senseless  on  Pennsylvania  Avenue.  He  was  taken  to  a  neighboring 
house  and  well  cared  for ;  and  I  saw  him  in  the  hospital  of  which  [ 
have  spoken. 

But  this  was  only  his  life  as  a  soldier.  There  was  another  and  a 
deeper  life  than  that.  The  great  loadstone  that  led  him  away  was  the 
magnet  of  his  nation.  Another  loadstone  held  his  heart  at  home  :  it 
was  the  magnet  of  Love. 

His  wild  and  wayward  history — wild  only  with  adventure  and  wayward 
only  with  romance,  he  seemed  to  me,  as  I  looked  upon  his  face,  so 
calm,  and  chiselled  into  sculptured  beauty,  I  thought,  either  he  looked 
like  an  Apollino  with  his  unstrung  bow,  or  a  nautilus,  cast  on  the  tur 
bulent  ocean,  to  be  wafted  to  some  unknown  clime,  or  sink  forever,  on 
the  floor  of  the  deep  sea,  to  find  a  coral  sepulchre. 

His  dark  eyelashes — bent  up  in  such  clear  relief  against  their  white 
ground — slowly  and  calmly  began  to  move. 

I  sprang  to  my  feet  ;  for  it  seemed  to  me  there  was  a  chance  yet. 

The  surgeon  was  long  in  coming  ;  and  yet  I  knew  he  would  come. 
He  did.  His  sharp  and  experienced  eye,  as  he  approached  the  cot, 
opened  with  surprise.  Touching  my  shoulder,  he  said,  with  surprise, — 

"  He  is  still  alive." 

In  an  instant,  taking  the  hand  of  the  dying  or  dead  boy, — I  scarcely 
knew  which, — a  faint  smile  passed  over  the  surgeon's  face. 

"  I  am  not  sure  but  he  may  come  up  yet.  If  he  revives,  there  is 
one  chance  left  for  him,  if  it  be  but  one  in  a  thousand.  But  I  will 
work  for  that  chance,  and  see  what  it  will  come  to.  '  Here  Art  triumphs, 
if  it  triumphs  at  all.'  " 

The  pulse  seemed  to  be  coming  as  he  took  the  hand. 

"It  acts  strangely  ;  but  I  have  seen  two  or  three  cases  very  much 
28 


434  COMING  BACK  TO   LIFE. 

like  it.  Mind  you,  I  do  not  think  we  can  do  much  with  this  case  ;  but 
you  stay  and  watch,  and  I  will  come  back  in  half  an  hour." 

So,  while  he  went  through  some  other  wards,  I  watched  the  patient. 
The  last  glimmer  of  life,  which  had  given  some  light  as  this  scene  was 
being  enacted,  faded  into  what  seemed  to  me  the  calmest  repose  of 
death. 

But  then,  I  thought,  it  is  a  strange  sight,  a  heart  filled  with  the 
earnest  passions  of  youth,  in  the  first  hopes  of  life  budding  into  their 
fruition  beneath  his  own  primeval  forest-shades,  where,  if  there  be  an 
element  that  ever  sanctified  an  early  life,  it  would  have  built  a  sanctuary 
— for  the  love  he  must  have  borne  to  the  fair  being  for  whom  he  had 
treasured  up  his  boyhood's  jewels,  for  whom  he  gave  up  everything  of 
the  earth  earthy,  to  rescue  a  Republic,  and  then  go  back  after  this 
episode  of  suffering  to  inaugurate  the  life  of  a  citizen  farmer  on  the 
bleak  hills  of  New  York  : — if  all  this  could  not  sustain  him,  what 
could  ? — 

In  former  visits  to  him  he  had  made  me  his  confidant  in  regard  to 
tfhese  matters.  He  seemed  to  be  haunted  with  the  idea  that  he  would, 
;after  all,  return  to  Utica,  and  once  more  see  those  he  loved  ;  and  yet 
;he  also  seemed  to  me  like  one  whose  days  were  numbered,  and  the 
surgeon  had  told  me,  after  repeated  counsels  with  his  professional 
brethren,  that  it  was  next  to  impossible  to  save  his  life,  and  that  1  must 
not  expect  it. 

All  the  while  I  clung  to  the  belief  that  some  vitality  of  faith,  or  love, 
or  hope,  or  patriotism,  or  divine  aid,  would  still  send  that  boy  back  to 
the  banks  of  the  Mohawk. 

I  saw  another  nervous  twitch  around  the  temples.  I  felt  his  pulse. 
It  was  an  indication  of  hope,  or  sudden  death. 

The  surgeon  came  by  again. 

"  That  boy  has  wonderful  vitality,"  he  said,  as  he  looked  at  his  face. 
Whether  it  was  purely  my  fancy,  my  hope,  or  a  fact,  I  did  not  know, 
but  twilight  seemed  to  pass  over  his  face. 

"Yes,  yes — I — I — wait — a  moment.     Oh,  I  shall  not  die  !" 

He  opened  his  eyes  calmly,  and  then  a  glow  which  I  shall  never  for 
get  suffused  his  cheek,  and,  lifting  his  emaciated  hands  for  the  first  time 
in  several  weeks, — feebly,  it  is  true,  but  they  seemed  to  me  strong, — 
he  exclaimed,  in  a  natural  voice,  "  How  floats  the  old  flag  now,  boys?" 

The  transition  from  death  to  life  seemed  like  enchantment.  I  could 
scarcely  believe  my  senses.  And  yet  I  knew  that  if  he  ever  rallied  this 
would  be  the  way. 


IS   BELLA  WELL?  435 

I  now  feared  that  his  excitement  would  carry  him  beyond  his  strength. 
I  could  not  keep  him  from  talking.  I  was  bending  over  him  to  see  if 
he  would  remember  me.  Looking  me  steadily  in  the  eyes,  his  brows 
knit  with  perplexity  for  a  few  seconds,  when  with  a  smile  of  delight 

and  surprise  he  said,  "  Yes  !  yes  !  It  is  you,  Mr.  L .  I  am  glad 

you  stayed  with  me.  I  have  been  dreaming  about  you  while  I've 
been  asleep ;  and  I  must  have  been  asleep  a  great  while.  How 
long  ?  " 

I  told  him  enough  to  let  him  understand  how  ill  he  had  been, — how 
long, — and  how  weak  he  still  was.  He  did  not  realize  it.  His  eyes 
wandered  down  to  his  thin  hands,  white  as  alabaster,  and  through  which 
the  pale-blue  thread-like  veins  wandered. 

"  Oh  !  Is  it  I  ? — so  lean  ?  I  was  not  so  when  I  fell  sick." — And  large 
tears  rolled  down  his  cheeks. 

I  implored  him  to  be  quiet  and  rest,  and  I  promised  him  he  should 
get  better  every  day,  and  be  able  to  go  home  in  a  short  time.  But  he 
grew  impatient  the  more  I  tried  to  soothe  and  restrain  him. 

He  looked  at  me  beseechingly,  and  asked,  "Won't  you  let  me  talk 
a  little  ?  I  must  know  something  more,  or  it  seems  to  me  I  shall  go 
crazy.  Please  put  your  ear  down  to  me  :  I  won't  speak  loud, — I 
won't  get  excited." 

I  did. — "  Have  you  got  any  letters  for  me  ?  " 

"Yes,  but  they  are  at  my  office.  You  shall  have  them  to-morrow. 
They  are  all  well  at  home." 

"  And  Bella  ?  " 

"Yes." 

"  Oh,  God  be  praised  !  " — 

After  a  few  moments  of  repose,  he  again  opened  his  eyes  wide. — 

"  I  have  been  gone  so  long  from  the  army  !  It  seemed  as  though  I 
never  could  get  back  when  I  got  home.  I  got  away  ;  and  I  wandered, 
and  wandered. — Oh,  how  tired  I  was  !  Where  is  McDowell  ? — Is 
General  Scott  dead  ?  They  said  so.  Did  they  carry  off  Old  Abe  ? 
Ho\v  did  he  get  back  ?  Did  the  Rebels  get  into  Washington  that 
night  ?  How  long  have  I  been  sick  ?  What  place  is  this  ? — Oh,  my 
head  !  my  head  !  " 

I  was  frightened.  He  had  risen  from  the  deep  ocean  into  the  sun 
light  for  a  brief  hour,  and  now  he  seemed  to  be  going  down  to  come 
up  no  more.  The  tender  chord  of  memory  had  given  way.  In  a  little 
while  the  surgeon  came  by,  and  I  told  him  what  had  happened. 

"  I  was  afraid  of  that.     But  I  think  we  can  manage  it.     If  he  wakes 


436  LIBERTY   CHEAP  .AT   ANY   PRICE. 

again  within  two  hours,  give  him  this  powder  on  his  tongue,  and  a  sip 
of  the  liquid.  If  he  does  not,  wake  him  gently." 

And  so  that  anxious  night  wore  away.  In  the  morning  he  woke 
bright  and  clear;  and  from  that  hour  he  began  to  get  well.  But  for 
whole  days  his  life  was  pulsating  in  its  gossamer  tenement,  fluttering 
over  the  misty  barriers  of  the  spirit-world. 

Bella's  letters,  received  during  his  extreme  illness,  could  now  be 
read.  They  were  among  the  noblest  ever  written  by  woman. 

"  Our  heart-prayers  for  you  have  been  answered  by  our  Father.  We 
now  wait  only  for  your  return.  When  we  parted,  it  was  not  with  re 
pining  :  you  had  gone  to  the  altar  of  your  country  in  solemn  and  com 
plete  dedication.  I  too  was  prepared  for  the  sacrifice.  I  expected  it, 
although  I  knew  how  crushingly  the  blow  would  fall.  But  if  you  had 
not  loved  your  country  better  than  Bella,  it  would  have  broken  her 
heart.  I  hope  now  in  a  few  weeks  you  will  be  again  by  my  side. 
When  your  health  is  once  more  restored,  I  will  promise  in  advance,  as 
you  desire,  not  to  try  to  keep  you  from  rejoining  your  regiment  ;  and  if 
the  stars  have  written  that  Walter  shall  not  be  my  husband,  God  has 
decreed  that  I  shall  die  a  widow  never  married." 

He  did  return  to  the  Mohawk  Valley.  He  married  Bella.  He  re 
turned  to  the  war  ;  and  on  the  eve  of  the  great  day  of  Antietam  he 
heard  that  his  son  was  born,  and  the  hero-father  died  by  the  side  of 
Hooker. — Sic  transit  gloria  mundi. 

"How  much  Liberty  costs!"  sadly  said  Mr.  Sumner. 
"  But  it  is  cheap  at  any  price." 


LIII. 

In  the  memorable  speech  of  Mr.  SUMNER  at  Cooper  In 
stitute,  September  10,  1863,  on  Our  Foreign  Relations, 
Mr.  GREELEY,  who  had  been  suspected  of  a  lack  of  cor 
dial  approval  of  some  of  Mr.  SUMNER'S  views,  said  in  a 
communication  to  the  Independent : 

Mr.  Sumner's  speech  is  not,  therefore,  a  mere  rehearsal  and  arraign 
ment  of  national  wrongs  already  endured  ;  it  is  a  protest  and  a  warn 
ing  against  those  which  are  imminently  threatened.  In  showing  how 


SUMNER   AGAIN   AT   COOPER   INSTITUTE.  437 

deeply,  flagrantly,  France  and  England  have  already  sinned  against  us, 
he  admonishes  them  against  persistence  in  the  evil  course  on  which 
they  have  entered,  against  aggravating  beyond  endurance  the  indigni 
ties  and  outrages  they  have  already  heaped  upon  us.  *  *  Mr.  Surn- 
ner's  is  the  authentic  voice,  not  of  the  mob,  but  of  the  people.  He 
utters  the  sentiments  of  the  conscientious,  the  intelligent,  the  peace-lov 
ing.  His  inoffensive  protest  against  the  wrongs  to  which  we  have  been 
subjected,  is  utterly  devoid  of  swagger  or  menace.  It  is  a  simple  but 
cogent  demonstration,  by  the  application  thereto  of  the  established 
principles  of  International  Law,  of  a  systematic  injustice  to  which  we 
as  a  people  have  been  subjected.  A  miracle  of  historical  and  states 
manlike  erudition,  his  address  is  severe  without  being  harsh, — an  in 
dictment,  judicial  in  its  calmness,  its  candor,  its  resistless  cogency. 

This  speech  had  inflamed  a  spirit  of  bitter  animosity 
towards  the  country  among  the  leading  classes  of  Eng 
land.  Earl  RUSSELL  not  only  justified  everything  the 
British  Ministry  had  done  in  a  hostile  spirit  towards  the 
United  States,  but  he  gloried  in  it.  Even  the  London 
Daily  Nczus,  which  tried  to  be  favorable  to  us,  criticised 
the  speech  at  length,  with  great  severity.  And  in  the 
press  of  the  British  Empire,  hardly  a  journal  of  any  espe 
cial  influence  could  speak  of  us  without  bitterness,  ex 
cept  the  Morning  Star,  of  London,  which  from  the  be 
ginning  to  the  end  of  the  Rebellion,  bravely  and  nobly 
sustained  our  national  cause.  It  said  : 

The  Hon.  CHARLES  SUMNER  has  not  belied  the  confidence  inspired 
by  a  long  and  illustrious  career.  He  is  as  firmly  as  ever  the  friend  of 
peace,  and  especially  of  peace  between  Great  Britain  and  America. 
The  eloquent  voice  which  has  so  often  employed  the  stores  of  a  richly 
furnished  mind  in  persuasives  to  international  amity,  has  not,  as  the 
telegrams  suggested,  been  inflamed  by  the  heat  of  domestic  conflict  to 
the  diffusion  of  discord  between  kindred  peoples.  His  speech  at  New 
York  on  the  loth  of  September  is,  indeed,  heavy  with  charges  against 
France  and  England.  But  it  is  an  appeal  for  justice,  not  an  incentive 
to  strife.  It  is  a  complaint  of  hopes  disappointed,  of  friendship  with 
held,  of  errors  hastily  adopted  and  obstinately  maintained.  It  is, 


438  THE   MORNING   STAR   OF   LONDON. 

however,  an  argument  which  does  honor  even  to  those  against  whom  it 
is  urged,  and  which  aims  to  establish  future  relations  of  the  closest 
alliance.  Senator  Simmer's  chief  reproach  is  this, — that  we  have  acted 
unworthily  of  ourselves,  unfaithfully  to  our  deepest  convictions  and  best 
memories.  *  There  runs  through  the  whole  of  Mr. 

Simmer's  gigantic  oration — far  too  long  to  have  been  spoken  as  printed, 
but  yet  without  a  word  of  superfluous  argument  or  declamation — an 
idea  on  which  we  can  now  only  touch.  From  the  first  sentence  to  the 
last,  Slavery  is  present  to  his  mind.  It  colors  all  his  reasoning.  It 
inspires  him  to  prodigious  eloquence.  Not  merely  as  the  Senator  for 
Massachusetts,  the  honored  chieftain  of  the  political  Abolitionists, 
but  as  the  Chairman  on  Foreign  Relations,  he  sees  everywhere  the 
presence  of  the  Slave  Power.  Against  it  he  invokes,  in  periods  of 
classic  beauty,  all  the  moral  forces  of  the  Mother  Country.  To  Eng 
land  he  makes  a  pathetic  and  passionate  appeal — more  for  her  own  sake 
than  that  of  the  slave — more  for  the  sake  of  the  future  than  of  present 
effects — that  she  withdraw  all  favor  and  succor  from  Rebel  slave 
owners.* 


LIV. 

Mr.  SUMNER  had  now  been  in  the  Senate  for  nearly 
twelve  years,  and  Massachusetts  was  to  re-elect  him  for 
the  third  term,  or  choose  another  man.  What  were 
called  his  extreme  views,  had  alienated  from  him  large 

*  From  OUR  FIRST  HUNDRED  YEARS,  where  I  treat  this  whole  subject  with 
some  portion  of  the  attention  which  its  importance  claims,  I  extract  a  brief  passage  : 

"  That  England  should  choose  such  a  period  of  our  national  adversity, — such  a 
moment  as  she  had  so  often  passed  through,  of  vindicating  the  supremacy  of  govern 
ment  to  save  civilization — a  moment  when  she  saw  what  she  fondly  deemed,  a  fatal 
blow  struck  at  our  prosperity,  if  not  our  very  existence — at  such  an  hour  to  join  our 
foes,  to  make  our  destruction  sure  !  She  was  the  only  nation  that  contemplated 
with  satisfaction  our  impending  doom  !  Thank  God,  she  was  not  to  see  it  !  We 
have  been  punished  for  our  national  sins  till  the  blood  burst  from  every  pore  ;  but 
we  did  not  die.  In  the  Doomsday- Book  of  Nations,  many  a  leaf  must  be  turned, 
after  England's  record  is  passed,  before  ours  can  be  reached.  Nations  never  die  in 
the  morning  of  life.  They  are  chastised  in  their  youth,  that  they  may  grow  up  into 
wisdom  and  righteousness.  But  when  they  have  grown  hoary  in  crime,  and  chas 
tisement  will  no  longer  end  in  reformation,  they  must  go  to  their  graves  unwept, 
unrepentant,  unforgiven." 


ONCE   MORE   IN    FANEUIL    HALL.  439 

numbers  of  his  party,  and  especially  in  Massachusetts  it 
was  known  that  in  attempting  his  re-election,  his  friends 
\vould  encounter  the  most  bitter  opposition.  The  First 
Proclamation  of  Emancipation, — September  22,  1862,— 
had  filled  the  hearts  of  his  friends  with  new  hope,  and 
inspired  his  enemies  with  greater  malignity.  A  meeting 
was  called  of  the  citizens  of  Boston,  to  respond  to  the 
First  Proclamation,  and  once  more, — October  6th — the 
Senator  was  to  address  his  constituents  in  Faneuil  Hall. 
Before  an  immense  meeting,  which  was  transported 
with  the  greatest  enthusiasm,  he  pronounced  his  well- 
known  speech  on  the  policy  of  EMANCIPATION,  in  the 
opening  of  which  he  uttered  the  following  words  in  de 
fence  of  his  public  course  : 

Such  are  accusations  to  which  I  briefly  reply.  Now  that  we  are  all 
united  in  the  policy  of  Emancipation,  they  become  of  little  con 
sequence  ;  for  even  if  I  was  once  alone,  I  am  no  longer  so.  With 
me  are  the  loyal  multitudes  of  the  North,  now  arrayed  by  the  side  of 
the  President,  where,  indeed,  I  have  ever  been. 

If  you  will  bear  with  me  yet  longer  in  allusions  which  I  make  with 
reluctance,  I  would  quote,  as  my  unanswerable  defence,  the  words  of 
Edmund  Burke,  when  addressing  his  constituents  at  Bristol. 

"And  now,  gentlemen,  on  this  serious  day,  when  I  come,  as  it  were, 
to  make  up  my  account  with  you,  let  me  take  to  myself  some  degree 
of  honest  pride  on  the  nature  of  the  charges  that  are  against  me.  I 
do  not  here  stand  before  you  accused  of  venality,  or  of  neglect  of 
duty.  It  is  not  said  that,  in  the  long  period  of  my  service,  I  have  in  a 
single  instance  sacrificed  the  slightest  of  your  interests  to  my  ambition 
or  to  my  fortune.  It  is  not  alleged,  that,  to  gratify  any  anger  or 
revenge  of  my  own  or  of  my  party,  I  have  had  a  share  in  wronging  or 
oppressing  any  description  of  men,  or  any  one  man  of  any  description. 
No  !  the  charges  against  me  are  all  of  one  kind, — that  I  have  pushed 
the  principles  of  general  justice  and  benevolence  too  far, — further  than 
a  cautious  policy  would  warrant,  and  further  than  the  opinion  of  many 
would  go  along  with  me.  In  every  accident  which  may  happen 
through  life,  in  pain,  in  sorrow,  in  depression,  and  distress,  I  will  call 
to  mind  this  accusation,  and  be  comforted." 

Among  the  passages  in  eloquence  which  can  never  die,  I  know  none 


440  ELECTED   FOR   THE   THIRD   TERM. 

more  beautiful  or  heroic.  If  I  invoke  its  protection,  it  is  with  the 
consciousness,  that,  however  unlike  in  genius  and  fame,  I  am  not 
unlike  its  author  in  the  accusations  to  which  I  have  been  exposed. 

FELLOW-CITIZENS,  a  year  has  passed  since  I  addressed  you  ;  but, 
during  this  time,  what  events  of  warning  and  encouragement !  Amidst 
vicissitudes  of  war,  the  cause  of  Human  Freedom  has  steadily  and 
grandly  advanced, — not,  perhaps,  as  you  could  desire,  yet  it  is  the  only 
cause  which  has  not  failed.  Slavery  and  the  Black  Laws  are  abolished 
in  the  national  capital ;  slavery  interdicted  in  all  the  national  territory ; 
Hayti  and  Liberia  recognized  as  independent  republics  in  the  family  of 
nations ;  the  slave-trade  placed  under  the  ban  of  a  new  treaty  with 
Great  Britain;  all  persons  in  the  military  and  naval  service  prohibited 
from  returning  slaves,  or  sitting  in  judgment  on  the  claim  of  a  master; 
the  slaves  of  Rebels  emancipated  by  coming  within  our  lines  ;  a  tender 
of  compensation  for  the  abolition  of  Slavery  :  such  are  some  of  Free 
dom's  triumphs  in  the  recent  Congress.  Amidst  all  doubts  and  uncer 
tainties  of  the  present  hour,  let  us  think  of  these  things  and  be  com 
forted.  I  cannot  forget,  that,  when  I  last  spoke  to  you,  I  urged  the 
liberation  of  the  slaves  of  the  Rebels,  and  especially  that  our  officers 
should  not  be  permitted  to  surrender  back  to  Slavery  any  human  being 
seeking  shelter  within  our  lines ;  and  I  further  suggested,  if  need  'were, 
a  Bridge  of  Gold  for  the  retreating  fiend.  And  now  all  that  I  then  pro 
posed  is  embodied  in  the  legislation  of  the  country  as  the  supreme  law 
of  the  land. 


LV. 


The  effect  of  the  speech  was  best  measured  in  the  sub 
sequent  nomination  and  reelection  of  the  speaker.  On  the 
1 5th  of  the  following  January,  at  noon,  each  branch  of  the 
State  Legislature  proceeded  in  its  own  chamber,  as  by 
previous  appointment,  to  the  election,  which  was  by  viva 
voce.  The  roll  was  called,  and  thirty-three  Senators  out 
of  thirty-six  again  announced  Mr.  SUMNER  to  be  their 
first  choice  ;  while  one  hundred,  and  ninety-four  as  against 
forty-one,  proclaimed  the  same  preference  in  the  House 
of  Representatives.  When  the  result  was  announced, 


HORACE   GREELEY   ON   CHARLES   SUMNER.  441 

— an  unusual   thing  in  a  Massachusetts   Legislature,— 
manifestations  of  applause  were  too  earnest  to  be  read 
ily  suppressed. 

Again  we  quote  the  words  of  HORACE  GREELEY,  in  an. 
article  signed  by  his  name,  in  the  N.  Y.  Independent, 
entitled  Charles  Sumner  as  a  Statesman  : 

For  the  first  time  in  our  political  history,  a  party  has  been  organized 
and  a  State  ticket  nominated  for  the  sole  purpose  of  defeating  the  re 
election  of  one  Who  is  not  a  State  officer,  and  never  aspired  to  be. 
Governor  Andrew  is  regarded  with  a  hostility  intensified  by  the  fewness 
of  those  who  feel  it ;  but  the  bitterness  with  which  Mr.  Sumner  is  hated 
insists  on  the  gratification  of  a  canvass,  even  though  a  hopeless  one  ; 
and,  since  there  was  no  existing  party  by  which  this  could  be  attempted 
without  manifest  futility,  one  was  organized  for  the  purpose.  And  it 
was  best  that  this  should  be.  Let  us  have  a  canvass  of  the  friends  and 
the  enemies  of  Mr.  Sumner  in  the  State  which  he  has  so  honored. 

I  have  said,  that,  while  Senators  have  shared  his  convictions,  none 
has  seemed  so  emphatically,  so  eminently  as  he,  to  embody  and  repre 
sent  the  growing,  deepening  Anti-slavery  sentiment  of  the  country. 
None  has  seemed  so  invariably  to  realize  that  a  public  wrong  is  a  pub 
lic  danger ;  that  injustice  to  the  humblest  and  weakest,  is  peril  to  the 
well-being  of  all.  Others  have  seemed  to  regard  the  recent  develop 
ments  of  disunion  and  treason  with  surprise  and  alarm  :  he  has  esteemed 
them  the  bitter,  but  natural,  fruit  of  the  deadly  tree  we  have  so  long 
been  watering  and  cherishing.  The  profound,  yet  simple  truth,  that 
"RIGHTEOUSNESS  exalteth  a  nation," — that  nothing  else  is  so  baleful 
as  injustice, — that  the  country  which  gains  a  large  accession  of  territory 
or  of  wealth  at  the  cost  of  violating  the  least  tittle  of  the  canons  of  eter 
nal  rectitude,  has  therein  made  a  ruinous  mistake, — that  nothing  else 
can  be  so  important  or  so  profitable  as  stern  uprightness  ;  such  is  the 
key-note  of  his  lofty  and  beneficent  career.  May  it  be  vouchsafed  him 
to  announce  from  his  seat  in  the  Senate  the  final  overthrow  of  the  de 
mon  he  has  so  faithfully,  so  nobly  resisted  ;  and  from  Greenland  to  Pa 
nama,  from  the  St.  John  to  the  Pacific,  the  sun  in  his  daily  course  looks 
down  on  no  master,  and  no  slave  ! 

LVI. 

At  the  same  time,  another  and  more  significant  article 


442  EFFECT   OF    LINCOLN'S   PROCLAMATION. 

appeared  in  the  National  Intelligencer,-  of  Washington, 
which  had  always  been  politically"hostile  to  Mr.  SUMNER  ; 
and  this  hostility  had  been  displayed  with  as  much  as 
perity  as  its  venerable  editor  ever  allowed  to  appear  in 
the  columns  of  that  dignified  and  able  journal. 

This  is  the  third  time  that  this  gentleman  has  been  thus  honored  by 
the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts.  Such  repeated  tokens  of  confidence 
would  seem  sufficiently  to  indicate,  that,  whatever  dissent  from  the  views 
of  Mr.  Sumner  may  elsewhere  exist,  he  is  the  favorite,*  as  he  is  admitted 
by  all  to  be  the  able  representative  of  the  opinions  entertained  by  a 
majority  of  the  people  of  this  great  and  influential  State.  And  these 
views  now  predominate  in  the  conduct  of  the  present  Administration, 
which  may  be  said  to  have  adopted,  reluctantly  and  at  a  late  day,  the 
political  and  military  policy  early  commended  to  its  favor  by  Mr. 
Sumner. 

If  we  are  not  able  to  concur  with  Mr.  Sumner  in  certain  of  his 
opinions  on  questions,  of  domestic  politics,  it  gives  us  only  the  greater 
pleasure  to  bear  our  cheerful  and  candid  testimony  to  the  enlightened 
judgment  and  peculiar  qualifications  he  brings  to  the  discharge  of  the 
important  duties  devolved  on  him  as  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Foreign  Relations  in  the  Senate.  In  this  capacity  he  has  deservedly 
won  the  confidence  of  the  whole  country. 

LVII. 

It  had  been  claimed  by  the  friends  of  a  more  vigorous 
policy  than  the  President  had  hitherto  adopted,  that  the 
cause  of  the  Union  would  gain  strength  after  the  Pro 
clamation  of  September  22d.  Their  prophecies  were 
more  than  fulfilled :  for  when  the  one  hundred  days,  of 
which  the  President  had  given  notice,  had  expired,  and 
the  full  and  Great  Proclamation,  as  it  was  well  called,  of 
January  ist,  1863,  appeared,  the  skies  everywhere  be 
gan  to  brighten.  A  new  spirit  of  hope  dawned  over  the 
popular  mind  ;  a  fresh  spirit  of  Freedom  and  enthusiasm 
for  Liberty  inflamed  the  popular  heart ;  new  zeal  went 


COLORED   SUFFRAGE   IN   DISTRICT   OF   COLUMBIA.       443 

through  the  army.  Slavery  was  losing  its  last  hold  up 
on  the  North,  and  the  star  of  Hope,  which  had  hitherto 
sent  but  feeble  rays  through  the  clouded  air,  was  to  give 
place  to  the  full-orbed  sun  of  Liberty. 

The  leaders  of  the  Rebellion  saw  the  rising  tide  at  the 
North  swelling  against  them,  and  they  began  to  display 
a  vigor  and  determination,  which,  desperate  as  their 
cause  might  seem  to  impartial  and  well-informed  ob 
servation,  were  to  indicate  how  fearfully  the  agencies  of 
a  bad  cause  may  be  multiplied,  as  they  are  marshalled 
for  the  final  conflict,  which  gives  the  last  energy  to  de 
spair. 

LVIII. 

The  extension  of  suffrage  to  Colored  citizens  of  the 
District  of  Columbia,  being  before  the  Senate,  Mr. 
SUMNER  said : 

The  bill  for  impartial  suffrage  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  concerns 
directly  some  twenty  thousand  colored  persons,  whom  it  will  lift  to  the 
adamantine  platform  of  equal  rights.  If  it  were  regarded  simply  in  its 
bearings  on  the  District,  it  would  be  difficult  to  exaggerate  its  value  ; 
but  when  it  is  regarded  as  an  example  to  the  whole  country  under  the 
sanction  of  Congress,  its  value  is  infinite.  It  is  in  the  latter  character 
that  it  becomes  a  pillar  of  fire  to  illumine  the  footsteps  of  millions. 
What  we  do  here  will  be  done  in  the  disorganized  States.  Therefore, 
we  must  be  careful  that  what  we  do  here  is  best  for  the  disorganized 
States. 

If  the  question  could  be  confined  in  its  influence  to  the  District,  I 
should  have  little  objection  to  an  educational  test.  I  should  be  glad 
to  witness  the  experiment  and  be  governed  by  the  result.  But  the 
question  cannot  be  limited  to  the  District.  Practically,  it  takes  the 
whole  country  into  its  sphere.  We  must,  therefore,  act  for  the  whole 
country.  This  is  the  exigency  of  the  present  moment. 

Now,  to  my  mind  nothing  is  clearer  than  the  absolute  necessity  of 
the  suffrage  for  all  Colored  persons  in  the  disorganized  States.  It  will 


444       SYMPATHY  WITH  EMPEROR  ALEXANDER. 

not  be  enough  if  you  give  it  to  those  who  read  and  write  ;  you  will 
not  in  this  way  acquire  the  voting  force  which  you  need  there  for 
the  protection  of  Unionists,  whether  white  or  black.  You  will  not  se 
cure  the  new  allies  which  are  essential  to  the  national  cause.  As  you 
once  needed  the  muskets  of  the  Colored  persons,  so  now  you  need 
their  votes  ;  and  you  must  act  now  with  little  reference  to  theory. 
You  are  bound  by  the  necessities  of  the  case.  Therefore,  when  I  am 
asked  to  open  the  suffrage  to  women,  or  when  I  am  asked  to  establish 
an  educational  standard,  I  cannot  on  the  present  bill  simply  because 
the  controlling  necessity  under  which  we  act  will  not  allow  it.  By  a 
singular  providence,  we  are  now  constrained  to  this  measure  of  enfran 
chisement  for  the  sake  of  peace,  security,  and  reconciliation,  so  that 
loyal  persons,  white  or  black,  may  be  protected,  and  that  the  republic 
may  live.  Here  in  the  District  of  Columbia  we  begin  the  real  work  of 
reconstruction,  by  which  the  Union  will  be  consolidated  forever. 

The  Bill  was  passed  by  a  large  majority ;  but  being1 
vetoed  by  the  President,  as  all  good  measures  then 
were,  it  was  passed  over  his  veto  by  two-thirds  of  both 
Houses. 

LIX. 

In  the  Senate,  on  the  8th  of  May,  he  reported  the 
following  resolutions : 

Resolved,  etc.,  That  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  has  learned 
with  deep  regret  of  the  attempt  made  upon  the  life  of  the  Emperor  of 
Russia  by  an  enemy  of  emancipation.  The  Congress  send  their  greeting 
to  his  Imperial  Majesty  and  to  the  Russian  nation,  and  congratulates 
the  twenty  million  serfs  upon  the  providential  escape  from  danger  of 
the  sovereign  to  whose  head  and  heart  they  owe  the  blessings  of  their 
freedom. 

And  be  it  further  resolved,  That  the  President  of  the  United  States  be 
requested  to  forward  a  copy  of  this  resolution  to  the  Emperor  of  Rus 
sia. 

Mr.  SUMNER  said: 

The  public  prints  have  informed  us  that  an  attempt  was  made  on 
the  life  of  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  by  a  person  animated  against  him  on 


THE   EMPEROR   OF   RUSSIA.  445 

account  of  his  divine  effort  to  establish  emancipation.  That  report,  I 
am  inclined  to  think,  has  not  disclosed  completely  the  whole  case.  It 
does  not  appear,  from  what  we  are  told,  that  the  special  ground  of  ani 
mosity  to  the  Emperor  at  the  present  moment,  is-  so  much  the  original 
act  of  emancipation  as  the  courage  and  perseverance  and  wisdom  which 
he  has  displayed  in  carrying  it  forward  to  its  practical  results. 

I  have  had  occasion,  formerly,  to  remind  the  Senate  how  completely 
the  Emperor  has  done  his  work.  Not  content  with  issuing  the  decree 
of  emancipation,  which  was  in  the  month  of  February,  1861,  he  has 
proceeded,  by  an  elaborate  system  of  regulations,  to  provide  in  the 
first  place,  for  what  have  been  called  the  civil  rights  of  all  the  recent 
serfs  ;  then,  in  the  next  place,  to  provide  especially  for  their  rights  in 
court ;  then,  again,  to  provide  for  their  rights  in  property,  securing  to 
every  one  of  them  a  homestead  ;  and  then,  again,  by  providing  for  them 
rights  of  public  education.  Added  to  all  these,  he  has  secured  to  them 
also  political  rights,  giving  to  every  one  the  right  to  vote  for  all  local 
officers,  corresponding  to  our  officers  of  the  town  and  of  the  county. 
It  is  this  very  thoroughness  with  which  he  has  carried  out  his  decree  of 
emancipation,  that  has  aroused  against  him  the  ancient  partisans  of 
slavery  ;  and  I  doubt  not  it  was  one  of  these  who  aimed  at  him  that  blow 
which  was  so  happily  arrested.  The  laggard  and  the  faithless  are  not 
pursued  by  assassins. 

The  Emperor  of  Russia  was  born  in  1818,  and  is  now  forty-eight 
years  of  age.  He  succeeded  to  the  throne  on  the  death  of  his  late  fa 
ther  in  1855.  Immediately  after  his  accession,  he  was  happily  inspired 
to  bring  about  emancipation  in  his  great  country.  One  of  his  first  ut 
terances  when  declaring  his  sentiments,'  was,  that  it  was  important  that 
this  great  work  should  begin  from  a.bove,  to  the  end  that  it  should 
not  proceed  from  below.  Therefore  he  insisted  that  the  Imperial 
Government  itself  should  undertake  the  blessed  work,  and  not  leave  it 
to  the  chance  of  insurrection  or  of  blood.  He  went  forth  bravely, 
encountering  much  opposition ;  and  now,  that  emancipation  has 
been  declared  in  form,  he  is  still  going  forward  bravely  in  order  to 
crown  it,  by  assuring  all  those  rights,  without  which  emancipation  is 
little  mere  than  a  name.  It  was,  therefore,  on  account  of  his  thorough 
ness  in  the  work,  that  he  became  the  mark  of  the  assassin ;  and,  sir, 
our  country  does  well  when  it  offers  its  homage  to  the  sovereign  who 
has  attempted  so  great  a  task,  under  such  difficulties  and  at  such  haz 
ards,  making  a  landmark  of  civilization. 


-446  HOW   TO   TREAT  THE  REBEL   STATES. 

The  measure  was  adopted,  and  the  resolution  trans 
mitted  to  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  in  the  iron-clad  steamer 
Miantonomah. 

LX. 

No  public  man  seemed  to  have  such  clear  ideas  of 
that  all-important  subject,  of  how  we  should  treat  the 
Rebel  States.  The  policy  Mr.  SUMNER  proposed  in  the 
beginning,  he  adhered  to  till  the  end.  It  was  dictated 
by  enlightened  judgment,  and  a  spirit  of  hearty  good 
will  to  the  South ;  for  in  his  case,  as  in  that  of  HORACE 
GREELEY,  GERRIT  SMITH,  and  many  others  of  the  most 
enthusiastic  champions  of  Freedom,  their  hostility  was 
against  a  system  of  wrong,  rather  than  against  the 
wrong-doer.  They  wanted  to  see  the  system  extermi 
nated,  without  the  ruin  of  its  upholders.  There  was, 
therefore,  nothing  strange  in  what  could  hardly  be  un 
derstood  at  the  time — the  expression  of  so  much  sympa 
thy  with  the  South  in  her  prostration.  The  first  hand 
extended  to  the  Chief  of  the  Rebellion  was  by  HORACE 
GREELEY,  in  the  bail-bond  of  JEFF.  DAVIS,  for  which  he 
received  the  jeers  of  thousands.  While  the  war  lasted, 
these  men  advocated  its  prosecution  with  unrelenting 
vigor.  When  it  ceased,  the  cry  went  out,  "  All  hands 
to  the  rescue — save  what  we  can  from  the  wreck  !  " 
And,  without  the  fear  of  contradiction,  I  boldly  assert, 
that  after  the  South  laid  down  their  arms,  the  earliest, 
the  strongest,  the  most  constant  friends  they  had  at  the 
North,  were  among  the  file-leaders  of  the  first  crusade 
against  Slavery,  and  among  the  rank  and  file  of  the  men 
who  had  done  the  hardest  fighting  during  the  war. 

In  the  October  number  of  the  Atlantic  Monthly  for 


MILITARY   RULE   IN  THE   SOUTH.  447 

1863,  with  his  usual  ability,  in  an  article  on  Our  Domestic 
Relations,  or,  How  to  Treat  the  Rebel  States,  Mr. 
SUMNER  goes  over  a  part  of  this  ground.  Assuming 
that  the  Union  victory  had  already  been  substantially 
won, — although  hundreds  of  thousands  of  lives,  and  un 
counted  millions  of  treasure  were  yet  to  be  added  to 
complete  the  immolation, — the  Senator  enters  upon  the 
discussion  of  a  question  which  was  soon  to  assume  such 
vast  magnitude — How  we  were  to  treat  the  Rebel 

o 

States.  It  became  clear  that  the  same  Supreme  Power 
which  in  its  sovereignty  was  suppressing  the  Rebellion, 
and  vindicating  the  laws,  would  be  obliged  to  fix  the 
conditions  of  perpetual  peace,  and  determine  by  what 
process  the  transition  from  rebellion  to  loyalty  might  be 
most  surely  accomplished. 

It  was  plain  enough  that  the  doctrine  of  State  Rights, 
which  had  been  at  the  bottom  of  the  Rebellion,  would 
have  to  go  by  the  board.  The  absurdity  of  two  sov 
ereignties,  to  say  nothing  about  thirty  or  forty,  in  one 
community,  subject  only  at  their  caprices  to  the  Sov 
ereign  over  all,  was  an  absurdity  that  would  no  longer 
require  extensive  argument. 

LXI. 

Early  in  the  progress  of  affairs,  Mr.  SUMNER  foresaw 
the  danger  that  would  arise  from  Military  Rule  in  the 
South.  The  appointment  of  Military  Governors,  which 
had  then  already  been  done  for  Tennessee,  South  Car 
olina,  North  Carolina,  and  Louisiana,  and  as  was  sub 
sequently  done  over  other  subjugated  States,  was  a 
necessity  at  the  time,  in  which  all  men  of  sense  concurred. 
But  he  anticipates  the  possible  danger  that  this  impera- 


448  POSSIBLE   ABUSE   OF  THE   POWER. 

torial  dominion,  indefinite  in  extent,  might  also  be 
indefinite  in  duration  ;  for,  if  under  the  Constitution  and 
laws  it  be  proper  to  constitute  such  Governors,  it  is  clear 
that  they  may  be  continued  without  regard  to  time — for 
years,  if  you  please,  as  well  as  for  weeks  ;  and  the  whole 
region  which  they  are  called  to  sway  might  become  a 
military  empire,  with  all  powers,  executive,  legislative, 
and  even  judicial,  derived  from  one  man  in  Washington. 

Could  any  prophet  have  foreseen  clearer  what  actu 
ally  followed  in  so  atrociously  unrepublican  a  form,  and 
in  violation  of  all  the  Republican  souvenirs  of  our  coun 
try  in  the  case  of  Louisiana  ?  It  would  have  been  well 
enough  if  this  tremendous  power  at  Washington  had 
limited  itself,  as  it  had  done  in  the  appointment  of  Mili 
tary  Governors  in  Mexico  and  California  after  their  con 
quest,  and  before  peace.  But  to  appoint  Military  Gov 
ernors,  and  prolong  their  power  in  a  conquered  country , 
beyond  all  civil  jurisdiction,  beyond  an  undoubted 
necessity,  and  their  appointment  for  temporary  purposes 
by  the  urgent  necessity  of  suppressing  a  Rebellion — the 
distinction  must  be  very  clearly  drawn,  and  the  civil 
power  must  come  in  the  first  moment  the  opportunity 
occurred,  and  the  military  power  be  withdrawn. 

Then  comes  in  the  power  of  Congress  to  establish 
Provisional  Governments  ;  and  even  these  provisional 
governments  must  hold  sway  no  longer  than  the  voice 
of  the  people  who  are  to  be  governed,  shall  be  heard  in 
the  appointment  of  their  own  Governors.  On  this  point 
the  opinion  of  Chancellor  KENT  is  quoted  : 

"Though  the  Constitution  vests  the  executive  power  in  the  Presi 
dent,  arid  declares  him  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  army  and  navy  of 
the  United  States,  these  powers  must  necessarily  be  subordinate  to  the 
legislative  power  in  Congress.  It  would  appear  to  me  to  be  the  policy 


CARPETBAGISM   IN   THE   SOUTH.  449 

or  true  construction  of  this  simple  and  general  grant  of  power  to  the 
President,  not  to  suffer  it  to  interfere  with  those  specific  powers  of  Con 
gress  which  are  more  safely  deposited  in  the  legislative  department,  and 
that  the  powers  thus  assumed  by  the  President  do. not  belong  to  him,  but 

to  Congress" 

It  has  been  in  violation  of  this  principle  that  so  much 
harm  has  been  done  to  the  South — that  the  Executive 
Power  at  Washington  has  been  so  severe  in  its  re 
pression  as  to  carry  a  blight  all  through  the  South, 
both  to  the  White  man  and  the  Black  man.  This,  of 
course,  has  been  attended  with  executive  favoritism,  by 
which,  under  a  regime  since  known  as  Carpetbagism, 
robberies  to  the  extent  of  many  millions  have  been 
committed, — fortunes  untold  extorted  from  the  help 
less, — and  insults,  injuries,  and  wrongs  without  number 
inflicted  upon  a  prostrate  and  ruined  people. 

LXII. 

Mr.  SUMNER  looks  at  the  argument  of  the  State  for 
feiture  thus  : 

But  again  it  is  sometimes  said.,  that  the  States,  by  their  flagrant 
treason,  have  forfeited  their  rights  as  States,  so  as  to  be  civilly  dead. 
It  is  a  patent  and  indisputable  fact,  that  this  gigantic  treason  was 
inaugurated  with  all  the  forms  of  law  known  to  the  States  ;  that  it  was 
carried  forward  not  only  by  individuals,  but  also  by  States,  so  far  as 
States  can  perpetrate  treason  ;  that  the  States  pretended  to  withdraw 
bodily  in  their  corporate  capacities  ; — that  the  Rebellion,  as  it  showed 
itself,  was  by  States  as  well  as  in  States  ;  that  it  was  by  the  governments 
of  States  as  well  as  by  the  people  of  States  ;  and  that,  to  the  common 
observer,  the  crime  was  consummated  by  the  several  corporations,  as 
well  as  by  the  individuals  of  whom  they  were  composed.  From  this 
fact,  obvious  to  all,  it  is  argued,  that,  since,  according  to  Blackstone, 
"a  traitor  hath  abandoned  his  connection  with  society,  and  hath  no 
longer  any  right  to  the  advantages  which  before  belonged  to  him 
29 


450  THE   SOUTHERN   STATES   VACATED. 

purely  as  a  member  of  the  community,"  by  the  same  principle  the 
traitor  State  is  no  longer  to  be  regarded  as  a  member  of  the  Union. 
But  it  is  not  necessary,  on  the  present  occasion,  to  insist  on  the 
application  of  any  such  principle  to  States. 

Without  going  into  theories  about  State  suicide,  or 
State  abdication,  or  any  of  those  endless  mazes,  he 
asserts  the  plain  fact  that,  for  the  time  being',  in  the 
absence  of  a  loyal  government,  those  States  could  take 
no  part  and  perform  no  function  in  the  Union  or  in  the 
administration  of  civil  government.  The  bright  spaces 
once  occupied  by  those  governments,  were  abandoned 
and  vacated.  He  continues  : 

That  patriot  Senator,  Andrew  Johnson, — faithful  among  the  faithless. 
the  Abdiel  of  the  South, — began  his  attempt  to  reorganize  Tennessee 
iby  an  Address,  as  early  as  the  i8th  of  March,  1862,  in  which  he  made 
nise  of  these  words  :  — 

"  I  find  most,  if  not  all,  of  the  offices,  both  State  and  Federal, 
vacated,  either  by  actual  abandonment,  or  by  the  action  of  the  in- 
.cumbents  in  attempting  to  subordinate  their  functions  to  a  power  in 
hostility  to  the  fundamental  law  of  the  State,  and  subversive  of  her 
.national  allegiance." 

In  employing  the  word  "  vacated,"  Mr.  Johnson  hit  upon  the  very  term 
-which,  in  the  famous  resolution  of  1688,  was  held  to  be  most  effective 
in  dethroning  King  James.  After  declaring  that  he  had  abdicated  the 
government,  it  was  added,  "  that  the  throne  had  thereby  become 
vacant"  on  which  Macaulay  happily  remarks  : — 

"  The  word  abdication  conciliated  politicians  of  a  more  timid  school. 
To  the  real  statesman  the  simple  important  clause  was  that  which 
declared  the  throne  vacant ;  and  if  that  clause  could  be  carried,  he 
-cared  little  by  what  preamble  it  might  be  introduced." 

LXIII. 

It  was  therefore  enough  that  the  Southern  States  were 
declared  vacated,  as  in  fact  they  were  ;  and  the  road  was 
open  to  the  exercise  of  a  rightful  Federal  jurisdiction, 


THREE   SOURCES   OF   CONGRESSIONAL  POWER.  451 

until  the  period  should  arrive  when  they  could  claim  their 
rights,  as  well-ordered  communities,  to  again  resume 
self-government  under  the  aegis  of  a  common  protecting 
Constitution. 

The  three  sources  of  Congressional  power  during  this 
interval  of  transition,  he  makes  to  consist,  first,  in  the 
necessity  of  the  case ;  for  where  there  is  no  other 
government  within  a  certain  district  of  our  territory, 
the  jurisdiction  must  lie  with  Congress ;  for  it  is  incident 
to  the  guardianship  of  the  eminent  domain  which  belongs 
to  the  United  States  wherever  its  people,  or  property, 
or  territory  exist.  Secondly,  this  jurisdiction  is  also 
derived  from  the  Rights  of  War.  The  power  of  the 
President  to  appoint  Military  Governors,  was  a  War 
Power,  and  that  was  a  Congressional  Power  ;  for  among 
its  prerogatives,  the  Constitution  clearly  enumerates  "  to 
declare  war,"  "  suppress  insurrections,"  and  "  support 
armies."  It  is  Congress  that  conquers,  and  the  same 
authority  that  conquers,  must  govern.  "  Would  you 
know,"  inquires  Mr.  SUMNER,  "  the  extent  of  these 
powers  that  must  be  conceded  to  Congress  ? "  He  gives 
the  following  answer : 

They  will  be  found  in  the  authoritative  texts  of  Public  Law, — in  the 
works  of  Grotius,  Vattel,  and  Wheaton.  They  are  the  powers  con 
ceded  by  civilized  society  to  nations  at  war,  known  as  the  Rights  of 
\Yar,  at  once  multitudinous  and  minute,  vast  and  various.  It  would  be 
strange,  if  Congress  could  organize  armies  and  navies  to  conquer,  and 
could  not  also  organize  governments  to  protect. 

De  Tocqueville,  who  saw  our  institutions  with  so  keen  an  eye,  re 
marked,  that,  since,  in  spite  of  all  political  fictions,  the  preponderating 
power  resided  in  the  State  governments,  and  not  in  the  National  Go 
vernment,  a  civil  war  here  "  would  be  nothing  but  a  foreign  Avar  in 
disguise."  Of  course  the  natural  consequence  would  be  to  give  the 
National  Government  in  such  a  civil  war,  all  the  rights  which  it  would 


452  MEANING   OF   REPUBLICAN   FORM. 

have  in  a  foreign  war.  And  this  conclusion  from  the  observation  of 
the  ingenious  publicist  has  been  practically  adopted  by  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  in  those  recent  cases  where  this  tribunal, 
after  the  most  learned  argument,  followed  by  the  most  careful  con 
sideration,  adjudged,  that,  since  the  Act  of  Congress  of  July  i3th,  1861, 
the  National  Government  has  been  waging  "a  territorial  civil  war,"  in 
which  all  property  afloat  belonging  to  a  resident  of  the  belligerent 
territory  is  liable  to  capture  and  condemnation  as  lawful  prize.  P.ut 
surely,  if  the  National  Government  may  stamp  upon  all  residents  in  this 
belligerent  territory  the  character  of  foreign  enemies,  so  as  to  subject 
their  ships  and  cargoes  to  the  penalties  of  confiscation,  it  may  perform 
the  milder  service  of  making  all  needful  rules  and  regulations  for  the 
government  of  this  territory  under  the  Constitution,  so  long  as  may  be 
requisite  for  the  sake  of  peace  and  order  ;  and  since  the  object  of 
war  is  "  indemnity  for  the  past  and  security  for  the  future,"  it  may- 
do  everything  necessary  to  make  these  effectual.  But  it  will  not  be 
enough  to  crush  the  Rebellion.  Its  terrible  root  must  be  extermi 
nated,  so  that  it  may  no  more  flaunt  in  blood 

The  last  point  is  found  in  the  Constitutional  provision 
that  "The  United  States  shall  guarantee  to  every  State 
in  this  Union  a  Republican  form  of  government,  and 
shall  protect  each  of  them  against  invasion."  In  these 
words,  <(  guarantee  "  and  "  obligation  "  on  the  part  of  the 
Federal  Government,  is  found  the  recognition  of  the 
original  concession  it  had  of  a  power  conferring  juris 
diction  above  all  pretended  State  rights.  And  the  occa 
sion  had  come  with  the  war,  for  the  exercise  of  that  two 
fold  power  of  the  national  government  which  had  been 
thus  solemnly  conceded.  He  therefore  remarks  that- 
All  that  Congress  proposes  is  simply  to  recognize  the  actual  condition 
of  the  States,  and  to  undertake  their  temporary  government,  by  provid 
ing  for  the  condition  of  political  syncope  into  which  they  have  fallen  ; 
and,  during  this  interval,  to  substitute  its  own  constitutional  powers  for 
the  unconstitutional  powers  of  the  Rebellion.  Of  course,  therefore, 
Congress  will  blot  no  star  from  the  flag,  nor  will  it  obliterate  any  State 
liabilities.  But  it  will  seek,  according  to  its  duty,  in  the  best  way,  to 


SUMNER'S.  CONSTITUTIONAL  ARGUMENT.  453 

maintain  the  great  and  real  sovereignty  of  the  Union,  by  upholding  the 
flag  unsullied,  and  by  enforcing  everywhere  within  its  jurisdiction  the 
supreme  law  of  the  Constitution. 

LXIV. 

He  closes  his  luminous  essay,  in  these  words  : 

To  my  mind  nothing  can  be  clearer,  as  a  proposition  of  constitutional 
law,  than  that  everywhere  within  the  exclusive  jurisdiction  of  the  Na 
tional  Government  Slavery  is  impossible.  The  argument  is  as  brief  as 
it  is  unanswerable.  Slavery  is  so  odious  that  it  can  exist  only  by  virtue 
of  positive  law,  plain  and  unequivocal ;  but  no  such  words  can  be  found 
in  the  Constitution.  Therefore  Slavery  is  impossible  within  the  exclusive 
jurisdiction  of  the  National  Government.  For  many  years  I  have  had 
this  conviction,  and  have  constantly  maintained  it.  I  am  glad  to  believe 
that  it  is  implied,  if  not  expressed,  in  the  Chicago  Platform.  Mr.  Chase, 
among  our  public  men,  is  known  to  accept  it  sincerely.  Thus  Slavery 
in  the  Territories  is  unconstitutional ;  but  if  the  Rebel  territory  falls 
under  the  exclusive  jurisdiction  of  the  National  Government,  then 
Slavery  will  be  impossible  there.  In  a  legal  and  constitutional  sense, 
it  will  die  at  once.  The  air  will  be  too  pure  for  a  slave.  I  cannot  doubt 
that  this  great  triumph  has  been  already  won.  The  moment  that  the 
States  fell,  Slavery  fell  also ;  so  that  even  without  any  Proclamation  of 
the  President,  Slavery  had  ceased  to  have  a  legal  and  constitutional  ex 
istence  in  every  Rebel  State.  *  *  But  enough.  The  case  is  clear. 
Behold  the  Rebel  States  in  arms  against  that  paternal  government  to 
which,  as  the  supreme  condition  of  their  constitutional  existence,  they 
owe  duty  and  love  ;  and  behold  all  legitimate  powers,  executive,  legis 
lative,  and  judicial,  in  these  States,  abandoned  and  vacated.  //  only 
remains  that  Congress  should  enter  and  assume  the  proper  jurisdiction. 
If  we  are  not  ready  to  exclaim  with  Burke,  speaking  of  Revolutionary 
France,  "It  is  but  an  empty  space  on  the  political  map,"  we  may  at 
least  adopt  the  response  hurled  back  by  Mirabeau,  that  this  empty 
space  is  a  volcano  red  with  flames,  and  overflowing  with  lava-floods. 
But  whether  we  deal  with  it  as  "  empty  space"  or  as  "volcano,"  the 
jurisdiction,  civil  and  military,  centres  in  Congress,  to  be  employed  for 
the  happiness,  welfare,  and  renown  of  the  American  people,- — changing 
Slavery  into  Freedom,  and  present  chaos  into  a  Cosmos  of  perpetual 
beauty  and  power. 


454  THE   PROCLAMATION    OF   EMANCIPATION. 

LXV. 

As  a  war  measure,  The  Proclamation  of  Emancipa 
tion,  Jan.  i,  1863,  was  the  first  effectual  blow  struck  at 
the  heart  of  the  rebellion.  It  shook  the  structure  to  the 
centre.  It  was  the  last  thing  the  slave  oligarchy  had 
thought  of.  It  came  upon  them  like  the  trump  of  doom. 
It  annihilated  all  hope  of  intervention  by  the  Powers  of 
Europe,  in  behalf  of  the  slave-propped  rebellion.  This 
they  acknowledged  themselves.  They  saw — it  was 
clear  enough  even  to  the  blind — that  the  first  throne  in 
Europe  which  took  sides  with  slavery  in  America,  would 
crumble  to  dust  in  the  earthquake  of  a  revolution.  It 
banished  all  idea  of  the  recognition  of  the  Confederacy 
from  the  brain  of  every  minister  in  Europe. 

It  was  one  of  the  grandest  deeds  ever  enacted  on  the 
earth  ;  it  will  have  more  influence  over  the  fortunes  of 
the  human  race,  than  almost  any  act  of  any  other  ruler 
of  nations.  Scarcely  had  a  short  month  gone  by,  be 
fore  it  was  known  to  every  sitter  in  the  Valley  of  the 
Shadow  of  Death ;  and  it  colored  the  policy  of  every 
government  in  Europe.  Those  who  sneered  at  it  as  a 
pompous  brutum  fulmen,  forgot  that  slavery  never  was 
restored,  where  it  had,  by  supreme  authority,  once  been 
proclaimed  abolished.  Liberty  takes  no  such  steps 
backward.  Slavery  had  been  abolished  by  proclamation 
in  San  Domingo ;  it  was  the  attempt  to  reinstate  it,  that 
whelmed  that  island  in  blood.  Anywhere  else,  it  would 
have  the  same  effect. 

Lord  Russell  ridiculed  it  because  it  was  levelled  only 
at  "  Slavery  over  territory  beyond  Mr.  Lincoln's  control, 
while  all  the  States  and  Districts  held  by  Federal  armies 
were  exempt."  This  would  be  a  very  flimsy  objection, 


DEATH-KNELL   OF   AFRICAN    SLAVERY.  455 

if  it  were  true  ;  but  it  was  not.  His  Lordship  forgot 
that  the  Proclamation  was  purely  a  war  measure.  Hu 
mane  and  sublime  as  the  results  were  to  be,  it  was  not 
done  as  an  act  of  humanity.  Its  sole  immediate  object 
was — like  that  of  any  other  war  measure — to  weaken 
the  enemies  of  the  country,  and  strengthen  its  friends. 
In  this  light  the  measure  was  adopted  for,  and  intended 
to  apply  only  to,  districts  in  rebellion  ;  it  was  to  take 
effect  there,  at  the  cannon's  mouth. 

Slave  labor  was  the  strong  prop  of  the  revolt.  It 
either  raised  bread  and  meat  on  the  plantations,  or  it  did 
the  heavy  work  of  the  camp  ;  and  able-bodied  slaves  had, 
from  the  hour  the  rebellion  began,  been  as  necessary, 
and  often  as  efficient,  as  white  soldiers  in  the  field. 
This  gave  the  South  half  a  million  extra  soldiers.  It 
would  have  been  no  war  measure  to  proclaim  slavery 
abolished  in  districts  which  were  loyal ;  for  our  friends 
there,  would  thus,  not  only  have  been  punished  for  their 
loyalty,  but  deprived  of  the  very  slave-labor  aid  to 
strengthen  them  in  fighting  our  enemies,  which  the  Pro 
clamation  was  intended  to  rob  the  rebels  of.  Besides, 
thinking  men  knew  that  the  Proclamation  was  not  a  mere 
isolated  act ;  it  was  part  and  parcel  of  the  imperative 
policy  of  a  government  charged  with  the  responsibility 
of  rescuing  itself  from  imminent,  and  appalling  danger. 
Universal  emancipation  of  the  African  race  everywhere, 
was  embraced  in  the  plan  ;  for  the  rebellion  had  made  it 
inevitable. 

The  Proclamation  was  hailed  with  gladness  by  all  the 
uncompromising  friends  of  the  Union ;  and  intelligent 
men  saw,  that,  hastily  as  the  verdict  had  been  rendered, 
sanctioning  the  act,  the  approval  was  the  solemn  voice 
of  the  nation ;  and  the  ratification  of  the  deed  sounded 


456  EMANCIPATION   OF   THE   AFRICAN   RACE. 

the  death-knell  of  African  Slavery.  It  was  the  sudden 
beginning  of  a  swift  end. 

Students  of  History  !  Let  memory  go  gleaning  over 
all  the  fields  of  the  past: — where  will  she  find  an  instance 
that  Freedom  had  once  proclaimed  Slavery  dead,  where 
it  ever  lived  again?  Some  systems  of  wrong,  once  sent 
to  their  graves,  have  no  resurrection. 

But  these  results  were  only  the  first  steps  in  the  march 
of  the  earthquake  which  had  startled  the  world.  Some 
events  are  understood  just  about  as  well  before,  as  after, 
they  happen.  On  the  subject  of  African  slavery,  the 
voice  of  no  nation  could  be  so  potential  as  America's. 
When  slavery  was  declared  abolished  here,  it  meant 
that  it  had  received  its  death-wound  in  every  land.  If 
negro  slavery  fell  dead  before  our  altars  where  liberty 
was  born,  it  would  carry  all  like  systems  with  it  to  a  com 
mon  sepulchre. 


SECTION   NINTH. 

Emancipation  of  the  African  Race. 

I. 

In  the  debate,  on  the  passage  of  the  bill  amending  the 
Charter  of  the  City  of  Washington,  in  May,  1864,  preju 
dice  and  injustice  still  insisted  on  inserting  the  word 
white  before  the  word  male,  so  as  to  exclude  Colored 
suffrage.  When  all  its  advocates  had  finished,  Mr.  SUM- 
NER  dropped  a  few  words,  especially  to  Mr.  WILLEY,  of 
West  Virginia,  who  had  opposed  the  extension  of  the 
right  to  Colored  people,  with  the  violence  indicated  by 


SLAVERY   DIES   HARD.  457 

these  words: — "This  provision,  I  undertake  to  say,  is 
not  only  odious  to  the  people  of  this  District,  but  that  it 
will  be  disastrous  in  its  results,  not  only  here,  but  in  its 
influence  on  popular  opinion  everywhere  in  the  nation." 

MR.  PRESIDENT, — Slavery  dies  hard.  It  still  stands  front  to  front 
with  our  embattled  armies,  holding  them  in  check.  It  dies  hard  on  the 
battle-field ;  it  dies  hard  in  the  Senate  Chamber.  We  have  been  com 
pelled  during  this  session,  to  hear  various  defences  of  slavery,  some 
times  in  its  most  offensive  forms.  Slave-hunting  has  been  openly  vin 
dicated  ;  and  now  to-day  the  exclusion  of  Colored  persons  from  the 
electoral  franchise,  simply  on  account  of  color,  is  openly  vindicated  ; 
and  the  Senator  from  West  Virginia,  newly  introduced  into  this  Cham 
ber,  from  a  State  born  of  Freedom,  rises  to  uphold  Slavery  in  one  of  its 
meanest  products.  Had  Slavery  never  existed  among  us,  there  would 
have  been  no  such  prejudice  as  that  of  which  the  Senator  makes  him 
self  the  Representative.  *  *  The  Senator  says  he  has  not  vindicated 
Slavery.  If  he  has  not  used  the  word,  he  has  vindicated  the  thing,  in 
one  of  its  most  odious  features.  He  seeks  to  blast  a  whole  race,  merely 
on  account  of  color.  Would  he  ever  have  proposed  such  injustice,  but 
for  the  prejudice  nursed  by  Slavery  ?  Had  not  Slavery  existed,  would 
any  such  idea  have  found  place  in  a  Senator  naturally  so  generous  and 
humane  ?  No,  sir.  He  spoke  with  the  voice  of  Slavery,  which  he 
cannot  forget.  He  spoke  under  the  unhappy  and  disturbing  influences 
which  Slavery  has  left  in  his  mind. 

Now,  Sir,  I  am  against  Slavery,  wherever  it  shows  itself,  whatever 
form  it  takes.  I  am  against  Slavery  when  compelled  to  meet  it  directly, 
and  I  am  against  Slavery  in  all  its  products  and  its  offspring.  I  am 
against  Slavery  when  encountering  the  beast  outright,  or  only  its  tail. 
The  prejudices  of  which  the  Senator  makes  himself  the  representative 
to-day,  permit  me  to  say,  are  nothing  but  the  tail  of  Slavery.  Unhap 
pily,  while  we  have  succeeded  in  abolishing  Slavery  in  this  District, 
we  have  not  yet  abolished  the  tail :  and  the  tail  has  representatives  in 
the  Senate  chamber,  as  the  beast  once  had.  *  *  The  enjoyment  of  the 
electoral  franchise  by  the  Colored  citizens  in  the  State  of  North  Carolina, 
for  a  long  time  after  the  Constitution,  is  not  a  matter  of  doubt.  Her 
most  eminent  magistrate,  the  late  Mr.  Justice  Gaston,  accomplished  as 
a  jurist  and  a  man,  laid  down  the  law  of  his  State  in  emphatic  words. 
Pronouncing  the  opinion  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  North  Carolina,  in 
the  casrof  The  State  vs.  Manuel,  in  1838,  he  said: 


45S  BUREAU    OF    FREEDMEN'S    AFFAIRS. 

"Slaves  manumitted  here  become  free  men,  and  therefore,  if  born  in 
North  Carolina,  are  citizens  of  North  Carolina,  and  all  free  persons  in 
the  State  are  corn  citizens  of  the  State.  The  Constitution  extended 
the  elective  franchise  to  every  free  man  who  had  arrived  at  the  age  of 
twenty-one,  and  paid  a  public  tax  :  and  it  is  a  matter  of  universal  noto 
riety  tliat  under  it  free  persons,  without  regard  to  color,  claimed  and 
exercised  the  franchise  until  it  was  taken  from  free  men  of  Color  a 
few  years  since  by  our  amended  Constitution" 

At  this  moment  of  revolution,  when  our  country  needs  the  blessing 
of  Almighty  God,  and  the  strong  arm  of  all  her  children,  this  is  not 
a  time  for  us  solemnly  to  enact  injustice.  In  duty  to  our  country,  and  in 
duty  to  God,  I  plead  against  any  such  thing.  We  must  be  against  Slav 
ery  in  its  original  shape,  and  in  all  its  brood  of  prejudice  and  error. 

II. 

This  speech  killed  the  bill.  It  was  brought  up  again, 
but  this  second  battle  for  suffrage  in  the  District  was 
lost  this  time  by  only  two  votes.  In  fact,  it  was  a  battle 
won ;  for  shortly  afterwards  the  emancipation  of  the 
Colored  people  of  the  District  was  made  complete.  A 
far  greater  measure,  however,  was  soon  to  come  before 
Congress.  After  a  long  and  disjointed  debate  in  the 
House  of  Representatives,  a  Bill  was  adopted  by  that 
body  to  establish  a  BUREAU  OF  FREEDMEN'S  affairs. 
When  the  Bill  reached  the  Senate,  a  substitute  was  pre 
pared  by  Mr.  SUMNER,  for  the  House  Bill  was  by  no 
means  satisfactory.  Some  of  the  best  men  in  the  coun 
try  laid  before  the  Committee  different  projects, — no  less 
than  nine  or  ten  in  all, — and  among  their  authors  were 
such  men  as  ROBERT  DALE  OWEN,  JOHN  JAY,  and  ED 
WARD  L.  PIERCE.  But  the  Bill  drafted  by  Mr.  SUMNER, 
and  adopted  by  his  Committee,  after  having  been  pre 
pared  with  the  utmost  care,  was  presented  to  the  Senate, 
and  explained  and  enforced  by  Mr.  SUMNER  in  an  able 


SPEECH   ON   THE   FREEDMEN'S   BUREAU.  459 

speech.  It  embraced  ten  sections,  the  first  of  which 
provided  that  "  An  office  should  be  created  in  the  Treas 
ury  Department,  to  be  called  THE  BUREAU  OF  FREED- 
MEN,  and  meaning  thereby  such  persons  as  have  become 
free  since  the  beginning  of  the  present  war." 

From  this  most  effective  and  beautiful  speech  I  can 
not  resist  the  temptation  of  extracting  a  few  passages. 
He  opened  thus : 

III. 

MR.  PRESIDENT, — The  Senate,  only  a  short  time  ago,  was  engaged 
for  a  week  considering  how  to  open  an  iron  way  from  the  Atlantic  to 
the  Pacific.  It  is  now  to  consider  how  to  open  the  way  from  Slavery 
to  Freedom.  *  *  In  what  I  have  to  offer,  I  shall  confine  myself  to  a  sim 
ple  statement  which  I  hope  will  not  be  taken  as  dictated  by  any  spirit 
of  controversy,  or  any  pride  of  opinion.  Nothing  of  that  kind  could 
justly  enter  into  such  a  discussion  as  this.  The  importance  of  the 
measure  is  seen  at  a  glance  ;  it  is  clearly  a  charity  and  a  duty.  By 
virtue  of  existing  Acts  of  Congress,  and  also  under  the  Proclamation  of 
the  President,  large  numbers  of  slaves  have  suddenly  become  free. 
They  may  be  counted  already  by  the  hundred-thousand  ;  in  the  pro 
gress  of  victory,  they  will  be  counted  by  the  million.  Deriving  their 
freedom  from  the  United  States,  the  national  government  cannot  be 
excused  from  making  such  provisions  as  may  be  required  for  their 
immediate  protection  during  the  present  transition  period.  The  freedom 
conferred  must  be  rendered  useful,  or  at  least  saved  from  being  a 
burden.  Reports,  official  and  unofficial,  show  the  necessity  of  action. 
In  some  places  it  is  a  question  of  life  and  death. 

After  glancing  at  these  reports  from  the  Southern 
States,  which  showed  that  wherever  our  arms  had  pre 
vailed,  the  old  social  system  had  been  destroyed, — mas 
ters  having  fled  from  slaves,  and  slaves  assuming  a  new 
character — released  from  former  obligations  and  sent 
adrift  in  the  world,  rolling  like  eddies  around  military 
posts,  and  all  of  them  looking  to  the  victorious  power  to 


460  HELPLESSNESS    OF    THE   EMANCIPATED. 

which  they  had  fled  for  protection  ; — the  exigency  was 
pressing.  It  had  been  alleged  that  most  of  them  were 
idle  and  vicious,  and  indisposed  to  work ;  but  General 
BANKS,  then  having  command  in  Louisiana,  used  these 
words  in  one  of  his  despatches  : — "  Wherever  in  the 
Department  they  have  been  well  treated,  and  reasonably 
compensated,  they  have  invariably  rendered  faithful 
service  to  their  employers.  From  many  persons  who 
manage  plantations,  I  have  received  the  information  that 
there  is  no  difficulty  whatever  in  keeping  them  at  work, 
if  the  conditions  to  which  I  have  referred,  are  complied 
with." 


IV. 


But  the  curse  of  Slavery  was  still  on  them — somebody 
must  take  them  by  the  hand  ;  for,  however  generous  had 
been  the  aid  given  by  private  societies  organized  at  the 
East  and  West,  their  efforts,  of  necessity,  were  wholly 
inadequate  to  the  work.  Without  government  super 
vision,  distress  would  become  all  but  universal,  and 
thousands  be  left  to  perish.  Mr.  SUMNER  showed  that  the 
service  required  was  too  vast  and  complex  for  unorgan 
ized  individuals.  Nothing  but  the  government  could 
supply  the  adequate  machinery,  and  extend  the  proper 
net-work  of  assistance,  with  the  proper  unity  of  opera 
tion.  The  national  government  must  interfere  in  the 
case  precisely  as  in  building  the  Pacific  Railroad.  It 
was  therefore  a  matter  of  imperative  necessity  that  a 
Bridge  from  Slavery  to  Freedom  should  be  constructed  ; 
and  call  it  charity,  or  duty,  it  was  as  sacred  as  humanity. 
The  bill  he  had  proposed,  would  protect  the  Freedman 
from  any  system  of  serfdom,  or  enforced  apprenticeship 


FIRST   COMMISSION   ON  FREEDMEN.  461 

— an  idea  which  many  of  the  former  slave-masters  clung 
to  as  a  reliance  for  the  still  imremunerated  labor  of  those 
from  whom  it  had  once  been  exacted.  To  the  Treasury 
Department  had  already  been  confided  jurisdiction  over 
"  houses,  tenements,  lands  and  plantations,  deserted  and 
abandoned  by  insurgents  within  the  lines  of  military 
occupation."  The  Bill  provided  against  any  system  of 
enforced  labor  or  apprenticeship.  It  was  constructed 
just  as  carefully  as  to  what  it  should  not  attempt  to  do  ; 
—the  trouble  being  in  all  such  cases  in  trying  to  ac 
complish  too  much.  "  It  does  not,"  as  he  remarked, 
"  assume  to  provide  ways  and  means  of  support  for  the 
Freedmen  ;  but  it  does  look  to  securing  them  the  oppor 
tunity  of  labor,  according  to  well-guarded  contracts,  and 
under  the  friendly  advice  of  the  agents  of  the  Govern 
ment,  who  will  take  care  that  they  are  protected  from 
abuse  of  all  kinds." 

The  Commission  on  Freedmen,  appointed  by  the 
Secretary  of  War,  in  their  report  had  already  said : 
"  For  a  time  we  need  a  Freedmen's  Bureau  ;  not  because 
these  people  are  negroes  only, — because  they  are  men 
who  have  been  for  generations  despoiled  of  their  rights. 
This  Commission  has  already  recommended  the  estab 
lishment  of  such  a  Bureau." 

It  was  a  long,  hard  fight.  It  encountered  at  every 
step,  whenever  it  came  up,  bitter  opposition.  It  finally 
passed  the  Senate,  on  the  28th  of  June  ;  but  it  had  a 
still  harder  struggle  to  go  through  in  the  House,  where 
it  did  not  pass  until  the  gth  of  February  of  the  following 
year,  and  then  only  by  a  majority  of  two.  It  had  the 
ordeal  of  another  struggle  in  the  Senate,  when  it  at  last 
passed  that  body  without  a  division,  and  on  the  same 
day,  March  3d,  was  approved  by  the  President,  and  the 


462        LETTER   OF   COUNSEL  TO   AFRICANO-AMERICANS. 

FREEDMEN'S  BUREAU  WAS  ESTABLISHED.  For  whatever 
abuses  may  afterwards  have  crept  into  the  administration 
of  the  system  it  was  no  more  to  blame,  than  was  the  sys 
tem  of  contracts  for  munitions  of  war,  or  any  other  depart 
ment — for  the  war  to  save  the  Union  was  disgraced 
from  beginning  to  end  by  robbery  and  plunder.  But 
the  historic  pen  which  traces  the  first  steps  of  mil 
lions  of  Freedmen  to  civilization,  will  have  to  record 
the  fact  that  this  BUREAU  was,  what  Mr.  SUMNER  had 
first  declared  it  to  be,  THE  BRIDGE  TO  FREEDOM.* 

*  After  the  Proclamation  of  Emancipation  I  addressed  the  following  Letter  of 
Counsel  to  colored  men,  which  met  the  warm  approval  of  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Sena 
tor  Stunner.  It  may  not  be  wholly  inappropriate  now. 

WASHINGTON,  Jan.  ist,  1863. 
KIND  WORDS  TO  AFRICANO-AMERICANS. 

FELLOW-MEN  : — The  day  you  have  waited  for  so  long  has  at  last  come. 

You  are  all  free  now, — or  you  soon  will  be  Your  charter  has  been  duly  signed 
by  the  President  of  the  United  States,  and  that  deed  is  ratified  in  heaven. 

God  is  always  on  the  right  side  :  he  is  the  everlasting  friend  of  freedom. 

Being  free,  your  earthly  salvation  is  put  into  your  own  hand?.  While  you  had  a 
master,  he  gave  you  bread,  clothing,  and  shelter — such  as  they  were.  In  escaping  the 
lash,  you  must  provide  these  things  for  yourselves.  You  have  always  claimed  you 
could  do  it,  and  your  friends  believe  you  can.  What  is  still  better,  you  have  through 
generations  proved  you  could  not  only  support  yourselves,  but  your  masters  too. 

Now,  laying  all  theories  aside,  and  coming  down  to  practical  business,  think  what 
questions  are  before  you.  But  first  let  me  tell  you  what  is  not  before  you. 

1.  You  need  not  give  yourselves  any  trouble  about  the  great  question  of  your  free 
dom.      It  is  a  moral  fact.      It  will  be  an  actual  material  fact  sooner  by  far  than  you 
can  prepare  for  it.      Remember  that  when  the  song  of  freedom  is  once  sung  its  notes 
will  vibrate  forever.     Slavery  is  mortal,  and  must  die  ;   Liberty  is  eternal. 

2.  Give  yourselves  no  solicitude  about  the  prejudice  against  your  color  ;   for  that 
prejudice   does  not  exist  in  pure   and  generous   hearts  in   such  a  form  or  to  such  an 
extent  as  materially  to  interfere  with  your  prosperity  and  future  elevation.     Let  your 
minds  rather  be  directed  to   the  means  you  should  employ  for  accomplishing    the 
destiny  which  is  now  within  your  reach. 

First.  Get  work  as  soon  as  you  can, — anything  that  is  honorable, — and  begin  to 
lay  up  money. — If  you  are  idle,  you  will  be  despised  as  vagabonds;  if  you  contract 
bad  habits,  you  will  have  no  friends  ;  if  you  commit  crime,  you  will  be  punished 
without  mercy.  In  no  community  whatever  can  you  expect  to  escape  punishment 
when  you  do  wrong.  The  color  of  the  white  man  may  save  him,  no  matter  how 


RESOLUTIONS   OFFERED   FOR  RETALIATION.  463 


V. 

On  the  23d  of  January,  1863,  a  joint  resolution  was 
offered  in  the  Senate,  advising  retaliation  for  the  cruel 
treatment  of  prisoners  in  the  hands  of  the  Rebels. 

"  As  it  has  come  to  the  knowledge  of  Congress,  that  great  numbers  of 
our  soldiers  who  have  fallen  as  prisoners  of  war  into  the  hands  of  the  in 
surgents,  have  been  subjected  to  treatment  unexampled  for  cruelty  in  the 
history  of  civilized  war,  and  finding  its  parallels  only  in  the  conduct  of 
savage  tribes — a  treatment  resulting  in  the  death  of  multitudes  by  the 
slow  but  designed  process  of  starvation,  and  by  mortal  diseases  occa 
sioned  by  insufficient  and  unhealthy  food,  by  wanton  exposure  of  their 
person  to  the  inclemency  of  the  weather,  and  by  deliberate  assassination 
of  innocent  and  unoffending  men,  and  the  murder  in  cold  blood  of 
prisoners  after  surrender ;  and  as  a  continuance  of  these  barbarities,  in 
contempt  of  the  laws  of  war,  and  in  disregard  of  the  remonstrance  of  the 
national  authorities,  has  presented  the  alternative  of  suffering  our  brave 
soldiers  thus  to  be  destroyed,  or  to  apply  the  principle  of  retaliation  for 
their  protection  ;"  the  resolution  declares  that,  "  in  the  judgment  of  Con- 
black  his  crime  or  loathsome  his  bestiality.  But  if  you  once  put  that  bitter  cup  to 
your  lips  you  will  have  to  drain  it  to  the  last  dregs.  Here  your  friends  cannot  save 
you.  You  must  beware  in  time,  and  escape  the  danger. 

The  law  was  made  for  you  as  well  as  for  white  men,  and  in  your  case  it  will  be 
sternly  enforced.  Few  voices  will  be  heard  pleading  in  your  behalf,  on  the  ground 
that  you  have  been  a  slave.  On  the  contrary,  you  will  find — what  does  not  often 
happen — that  all  the  bad  as  well  as  the  good  will  be  arrayed  against  you.  If  you  do 
not  keep  a  sharp  look-out,  you  will  find  that  freedom,  although  a  holy,  is  often  a 
dangerous  gift.  A  great  poet  says,  "  Lord  of  himself, —that  heritage  of  woe." 

Second :  GET  KNOWLEDGE  — Other  things  being  equal,  your  progress  and  ele 
vation  will  depend  entirely  upon  the  amount  of  your  intelligence.  Ignorance  is 
one  of  the  principal  curses  of  slavery.  In  Heaven's  name,  rid  yourselves  of  it  as 
quickly  as  possible. 

FIRST  OF  ALL,  LEARN  TO  READ,  and  teach  your  wives  and  children.  Do  it 
nights  and  Sundays,  if  you  can  find  no  other  time.  And  when  this  is  done  you  will, 
indeed,  find  yourselves  in  a  new  world.  You  don't  know  how  much  good  it  would 
do  you  all.  Ignorance  cannot  help  you  or  anybody  else.  Ignorance  is  dark  • 
knowledge  is  light.  Do  not  think  you  have  done  much  till  you  can  read 
that  glorious  book  which  our  Father  sent  down  to  us  from  heaven.  It  is 
his  voice.  It  speaks  to  you.  You  must  learn  to  read  it.  But,  whatever  you  may 
neglect  for  yourselves,  don't,  oh,  don't  let  your  children  grow  up  in  ignorance  ;  for 
they  would  still  be  under  the  curse  of  slavery.  Get  as  near  to  the  school-house  and 
a  Sunday-school  as  you  can.  There  will  hereafter  be  no  law  in  the  South  punishing 


464       BARBARITY  PROPOSED  FOR  BARBARITY. 

gress  it  has  become  justifiable  and  necessary  that  the  President  should,  in 
order  to  prevent  the  continuance  and  recurrence  of  such  barbarities,  and 
to  insure  the  observance  by  the  insurgents  of  the  laws  of  civili/ed  war, 
resort  at  once  to  measures  of  retaliation  ;  that  in  the  opinion  of  Con 
gress,  such  retaliation  ought  to  be  inflicted  upon  the  insurgent  officers 
now  in  our  hands,  or  hereafter  to  fall  into  our  hands  as  prisoners  ;  that 
such  officers  ought  to  be  subjected  to  like  treatment  practised  toward 
our  officers  or  soldiers  in  the  hands  of  the  insurgents,  in  respect  to 
quantity  and  quality  of  food,  clothing,  fuel,  medicine,  medical  attend 
ance,  personal  exposure,  or  other  mode  of  dealing  with  "them  ; 
that,  with  a  view  to  the  same  ends,  the  insurgent  prisoners  in  our  hands 
ought  to  be  placed  under  the  control  and  in  the  keeping  of  officers 
and  men  who  have  themselves  been  prisoners  in  the  hands  of  the  insur 
gents,  and  have  thus  acquired  a  knowledge  of  their  mode  of  treating 
Union  prisoners  ;  that  explicit  instructions  ought  to  be  given  to  the 
forces  having  the  charge  of  such  insurgent  prisoners,  requiring  them  to 
carry  out  strictly  and  promptly  the  principles  of  this  resolution  in  every 
case,  until  the  President,  having  received  satisfactory  information  of  the 
abandonment  by  the  insurgents  of  such  barbarous  practices,  shall  revoke 
or  modify  those  instructions.  Congress  do  not,  however,  intend  by 
this  resolution  to  limit  or  restrict  the  power  of  the  President  to  the 
modes  or  principles  of  retaliation  herein  mentioned,  but  only  to  advise 
a  resort  to  them  as  demanded  by  the  occasion." 

anybody  that  teaches  you  to  read.  All  good  people  will  help  you,  and  you  will  find 
it  not  only  very  easy,  after  a  little  while,  but  very  delightful.  Then,  and  then  only, 
will  you  know  what  freedom  is  worth. 

You  must  forget  and  forgive  all  the  wrongs  you  have  suffered.  "If  you  forgive 
not,  neither  shall  you  be  forgiven."  This  is  God's  rule  ;  and  you  must  obey  it  if  you 
would  have  his  blessing.  I  know  how  hard  it  will  sometimes  come  to  forgive  those 
who  have  sold  your  wives  and  children  and  heaped  on  your  heads  wrong  upon  wrong. 
But  you  must  do  it.  Christ  did  it  to  his  murderers.  "  Vengeance  is  mine,  saith  the 
Lord." 

All  your  friends  are  proud  to  hear  that  you  have  behaved  so  well  wherever  you  have 
been  instantly  set  free.  The  foes  of  emancipation  predicted  that  you  would  be  guilty 
of  every  crime.  But  of  the  tens  of  thousands  who  have  suddenly  passed  into  freedom, 
no  record  of  crime  yet  appears  against  you.  We  can  now  point  to  your  example,  and 
justify  ourselves  for  all  the  confidence  we  have  had  in  you. 

So  too  are  we  happy  and  grateful  to  learn  that  the  three  millions  and  a  half  of 
your  race  who  still  clank  the  chain  are  meekly  and  patiently  waiting  for  the  day  of 
their  liberation.  God  grant  that  they  may  wait  patiently  still  !  While  HE  is  doing 
the  work,  do  not  stand  in  His  way.  Show  to  the  world  that  you  were  worthy  to  be 
free.  The  more  you  prove  this,  the  quicker  the  fetters  will  fall.  Let  it  be  God's  act. 
He  will  hasten  it  in  his  time. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  war  till  now,  you  have  been  compelled  to  look  on,  idle 
spectators  of  this  great  struggle;  and  you  know  the  reason  why.  The  war  was  not 
begun  by  the  North,  nor  was  it  carried  on  by  the  North  for  the  sake  of  destroying 


SUMNER'S  CIVILIZED  SUBSTITUTE.  465 


VI. 

This  resolution  was  vigorously  defended  by  Mr.  WADE, 
of  Ohio,  and  Mr.  HOWARD,  of  Michigan ;  but  Mr.  SUM- 
NER  moved  the  following,  as  a  substitute : 

That  retaliation  is  harsh  always,  even  in  the  simplest  cases,  and  is 
permissible  only  where,  in  the  first  place,  it  may  reasonably  be  expected 
to  effect  its  object ;  and  where,  in  the  second  place,  it  is  consistent  with 
the  usages  of  civilized  society  ;  and  that,  in  the  absence  of  these  essen 
tial  conditions,  it  is  a  useless  barbarism,  having  no  other  end  than  ven 
geance,  whidi  is  forbidden  alike  to  nations  and  to  men. 

And  be  it  further  resolved,  That  the  treatment  of  our  officers  and 
soldiers  in  rebel  prisons  is  cruel,  savage  and  heart-rending,  beyond  all 
precedent ;  that  it  is  shocking  to  morals  ;  that  it  is  an  offence  against 
human  nature  itself;  that  it  adds  new  guilt  to  the  crime  of  the  rebellion, 
and  constitutes  an  example  from  which  history  will  turn  with  sorrow  and 
disgust. 

And  be  it  further  resolved,  That  any  attempted  imitation  of  rebel 


slavery.  It  was  begun  by  the  slave-holders  to  destroy  the  Union,  extend  slavery,  and 
open  the  slave-trade.  The  North  went  into  it  to  preserve  the  Union  ;  and  when  we 
found  that  slavery  would  destroy  the  republic  unless  slavery  should  be  wiped  out  it 
self,  then  Mr.  Lincoln  declared  freedom  to  all  the  slaves  of  all  the  enemies  of  the 
Union. 

Now  it  has  come  to  this,  that  this  great  war  is  between  slavery  and  freedom.  It  Jias 
become  a  war  for  you.  Now  you  can  come  into  the  fight,  and  take  the  field,  and 
help  work  out  your  own  salvation.  And  you  must  do  it;  for  remember  that  "he 
who  would  be  free,  himself  must  strike  the  blow."  If  you  will  not  help  yourselves, 
whom  are  you  to  look  to  ? 

Yes,  you  must  not  hang  back.  Enlist  in  the  army  the  first  chance  you  get.  If  you 
are  not  as  ready  and  willing  to  spill  your  blood  for  your  own  freedom  as  white  men 
are  to  do  it  for  you,  then  you  will  prove,  what  your  masters  have  always  said,  that 
you  are  not  fit  nor  worthy  to  be  free.  You  are  not  asked  to  take  a  life,  or  use  or 
destroy  any  property,  except  as  soldiers,  under  the  command  of  your  officers.  In  all 
this  you  are  doing  but  your  duty  as  men  and  citizens  of  a  great  and  glorious  country. 

You  will  not  forget  that  mankind  respect  nothing  so  much  as  valor.  To  fight  gal 
lantly  in  a  good  cause  will  win  for  you  and  your  race  more  honor  and  respect  than 
you  can  win  in  any  other  way.  By  showing  that  you  are  good  soldiers,  you  will  do 
more  towards  your  own  progress  and  elevation  than  all  your  friends  could  do  for  you 
in  a  century. 

In  this  way,  and  in  this  way  only,  can  you  repay  the  debt  of  gratitude  which  you  owe 
30 


466  NEW   PLEDGES   FOR   ENDING   THE   REBELLION. 

barbarism  in  the  treatment  of  prisoners  would  be  plainly  impracticable, 
on  account  of  its  inconsistency  with  the  prevailing  sentiments  of  hu 
manity  among  us ;  that  it  would  be  injurious  at  home,  for  it  would  bar 
barize  the  whole  community ;  that  it  would  be  utterly  useless,  for  it 
could  not  affect  the  cruel  authors  of  the  revolting  conduct  which  we 
seek  to  overcome  ;  that  it  would  be  immoral,  inasmuch  as  it  proceeded 
from  vengeance  alone  ;  that  it  could  have  no  other  result  than  to  de 
grade  the  national  character  and  the  national  name,  and  to  bring  down 
upon  our  country  the  reprobation  of  history ;  and  that  being  thus  im 
practicable,  useless,  immoral,  and  degrading,  it  must  be  rejected  as  a 
measure  of  retaliation,  precisely  as  the  barbarism  of  roasting  or  eating 
prisoners  is  always  rejected  by  civilized  powers. 

And  be  it  further  resolved,  That  the  United  States,  filled  with  grief 
:and  sympathy  for  the  cherished  citizens  who,  as  officers  and  soldiers, 
have  become  the  victims  of  Heaven-defying  outrage,  hereby  declare 
their  solemn  determination  to  put  an  end  to  this  great  iniquity  by  put 
ting  an  end  to  the  rebellion  of  which  it  is  the  natural  fruit ;  that  to  secure 
this  humane  and  righteous  consummation,  they  pledge  anew  their  best 
energies  and  all  the  resources  of  the  whole  people  ;  and  they  call  upon 
.all  to  bear  witness  that  in  this  necessary  warfare  with  barbarism,  they  re- 

"to  your  deliverers.  Every  brave  deed  you  do,  the  higher  your  fidelity  to  your  flag, 
the  more  complete  your  subordination  and  discipline,  the  higher  you  and  your  race 
will  stand,  not  only  with  your  commanders  and  with  the  whole  country,  but  with  all 
nations. 

Never  before  have  Africans  had  such  a  chance  !  In  the  name,  then,  of  your  nearly 
:iive  millions  in  the  United  States,  of  more  than  half  as  many  in  South  America  and 
the  West  India  Islands,  and  of  the  uncounted  millions  on  the  great  continent  of 
Africa,  we  call  on  you  to  shoulder  the  musket  !  and  let  your  valor  and  martial  achieve 
ments  work  the  long-delayed  redemption  of  a  mighty  people. 

Another  consideration,  which  is  likely  to  be  of  grave  magnitude  hereafter,  should 
not  be  left  out  of  sight  now.  It  is  EMIGRATION, — NOT  COLONIZATION  MERELY.  It 
1  as  been  a  Sisyphus  work  for  us  to  try  to  found  colonies  in  Africa  while  we  held  mil- 
Jions  of  slaves  at  home,  and  offered  no  inducement  to  emigrate  except  either  to  be 
.made  free  at  the  price  of  expatriation,  or  to  receive  the  poor  boon  of  escaping  the 
Jilighting  influence  of  prejudice  against  color,  at  the  cost  of  a  life-long  exile  among 
.barbarians  of  a  darker  skin,  and  no  knowledge  of  civilization  or  the  living  God. 

Few  of  your  race  went  to  Africa  on  these  hard  terms  ;  and  I  am  glad  of  it. 


I  might  now — March  28th,  1874,  when  we  have  the  sad  news  of  Dr.  Livingstone's 
death  in  the  heart  of  Africa — press  this  consideration  with  earnestness:  for  it  is  my 
full  conviction  that  the  civilization  of  Afiica — which  is  so  sure  to  come — will  he 
•effected  chiefly  through  the  agency  of  the  emancipated  Africano- American  Race. 


SPEECH   SUSTAINING  THE   SUBSTITUTE.  467 

nounce  all  vengeance  and  every  evil  example,  and  plant  themselves 
firmly  on  the  sacred  landmarks  of  civilization,  under  the  protection  of 
that  God  who  is  present  with  every  prisoner,  and  enables  heroic  souls 
to  suffer  for  their  country. 

In  sustaining  his  Resolutions  Mr.  SUMNER  said  :— 

"  Now,  sir,  I  believe  that  the  Senate  will  not  undertake  in  this 
age  of  Christian  light,  under  any  inducement,  under  any  provocation, 
to  counsel  the  Executive  Government  to  enter  into  any  such  compe 
tition  with  barbarism.  Sir,  the  thing  is  impossible;  it  cannot  be  en 
tertained  ;  we  cannot  be  cruel,  or  barbarous,  or  savage,  because  the 
rebels,  whom  we  are  now  meeting  in  warfare,  are  cruel,  barbarous, 
and  savage.  We  cannot  imitate  that  detested  example.  Sir,  we 
find  no  precedent  for  it  in  our  own  history,  nor  in  the  history  of  other 
nations.  *  *  The  Senator  from  Michigan,  who  advocates  so  elo 
quently  this  unprecedented  retaliation,  attempted  a  description  of  the 
torments  of  the  rebel  prisons;  but  language  failed  him.  After  speaking 
of  their  'immeasurable  criminality,'  and  the  'horrors  of  these  scenes,' 
which  he  said  were  *  absolutely  indescribable,'  he  proceeded  to  ask  that 
we  should  do  these  same  things ;  that  we  should  take  the  lives  of  pris 
oners,  even  by  freezing  and  starvation,  or  turn  them  into  living 
skeletons — by  Act  of  Congress." 

Mr.  SUMNER'S  amendment,  to  the  honor  of  the  Senate, 
was  adopted  by  a  large  majority,  although  rejected  in 
the  House. 


VII. 


In  a  letter  to  the  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY  of  New 
York,  December  2ist,  1863,  Mr.  SUMNER  said:  "Amid 
all  the  sorrows  of  a  conflict  without  precedent,  let  us 
hold  fast  to  the  consolation  that  it  is  in  simple  obedience 
to  the  spirit  in  which  New  England  was  founded,  that 
we  are  now  resisting  the  bloody  efforts  to  raise  a  wicked 
power  on  the  corner-stone  of  Human  Slavery,  and  that 
as  New  Englanders  we  could  not  do  otherwise.  If  such 


468  ON   BUILDING   THE   PACIFIC    RAILROAD. 

a   wicked  power  can  be  raised  on   this  continent,  the 
Mayflower  traversed  its  wintry  sea  in  vain." 

"  We  remember  too  that  another  ship  crossed  at  the 
same  time,  buffeting  the  same  sea.  It  was  a  Dutch 
ship  with  twenty  slaves,  who  were  landed  at  Jamestown, 
in  Virginia,  and  became  the  fatal  seed  of  that  Slavery 
which  has  threatened  to  overshadow  the  land.  Thus 
the  same  ocean,  in  the  same  year,  bore  to  the  Western 
Continent  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  consecrated  to  Human 
Liberty,  and  also  a  cargo  of  slaves.  In  the  holds  of 
those  two  ships  were  the  germs  of  the  present  direful 
war  ;  and  the  simple  question  now  is  between  the  May 
flower  and  the  slave  ship.  Who  that  has  not  forgotten 
God  can  doubt  the  result  ?  The  Mayflower  must  pre 
vail." 

VIII. 

Being  invited  by  the  Colored  citizens  of  Boston  to  a 
public  meeting  for  the  celebration  of  Emancipation,  he 
was  obliged  to  decline;  but  in  reply,  he  said:  "  I  am 
glad  that  you  celebrated  the  day.  It  deserved  your 
celebration,  your  thanksgiving,  and  your  prayers.  ON 

THAT  DAY  AN  ANGEL  APPEARED  UPON  THE  EARTH." 

IX. 

On  the  building  of  the  Pacific  Railroad — May  23d, 
1863 — "  I  have  always  voted  for  it,  and  now  that  it  is 
authorized  by  Congress,  I  follow  it  with  hope  and  confi 
dence.  Let  the  Road  be  built,  and  its  influence  will  be 
incalculable.  People  will  wonder  that  the  world  lived  so 
long  without  it.  Conjoining  the  two  oceans,  it  will  be 
an  agency  of  matchless  power, — not  only  commercial, 


UNION   OF   MISSISSIPPI  AND   LAKES.  469 

but  political.  It  will  be  a  new  girder  to  the  Union,  a 
new  help  to  business,  and  a  new  charm  to  life.  New 
houses  and  new  towns  will  spring  up,  making  new  de 
mand  for  labor  and  supplies.  Civilization  will  be  pro 
jected  into  the  forest  and  over  the  plain,  while  the  desert 
is  made  to  yield  its  increase.  There  is  no  productiveness 
to  compare  with  that  from  the  upturned  sod  which  re 
ceives  the  iron  rail.  In  its  crop  are  school-houses  and 
churches,  cities  and  States." 


On  the  "  Union  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  Lakes  by 
canal"  —May  27,  1863 — "The  proposition  to  unite  the 
greatest  navigable  river  in  the  world  with  the  greatest 
inland  sea,  is  characteristic  of  the  West.  Each  is  worthy 
of  the  other.  With  this  union,  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  will 
be  joined  to  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  and  the  whole 
continent,  from  Northern  cold  to  Southern  heat,  trav 
ersed  by  one  generous  flood,  bearing  upon  its  bosom 
untold  commerce.  Let  its  practicability  be  demonstrated 
and  the  country  will  command  it  to  be  done,  as  it  has 
already  commanded  the  opening  of  the  Mississippi. 
Triumphant  over  the  wickedness  of  an  accursed  Re 
bellion,  we  shall  achieve  another  triumph,  to  take  its 
place  among  the  victories  of  Peace.  Mirabeau  was  right 
when  he  protested  against  the  use  of  the  word  impossi 
ble,  as  simple  stupidity.  But  I  doubt  if  the  word  will  be 
found  in  any  Western  dictionary." 

XL 

The  managers  of  the  Young  Men's  Association  of 
Albany,  after  excluding  from  their  lecture-room  all 


470  AMENDMENT   ABOLISHING   SLAVERY. 

Colored  persons,  had  invited  Senator  SUMNER  to  address 
them,  on  the  character  and  history  of  Lafayette.  Their 
heroic  achievement  seems  to  have  been  fully  appreciated, 
and  they  received  the  following"  well-merited  reply  :— 
"  I  am  astonished  at  the  request.  I  cannot  consent  to 
speak  of  LAFAYETTE,  who  was  not  ashamed  to  fight  be 
side  a  black  soldier,  to  an  audience  too  delicate  to  sit  be 
side  a  black  citizen.  I  cannot  speak  of  Lafayette,  who 
was  a  friend  of  universal  liberty,  under  the  auspices  of  a 
society  which  makes  itself  the  champion  of  caste  and  vul 
gar  prejudice."  This  can  hardly  be  called  a  SUMNER 
milestone,  but  it  is  one  of  those  little  shining  pebbles  that 
the  feet  of  the  traveler  may  turn  up,  on  the  sands  of  time 
—like  some  ancient  intaglio — with  the  two  charmed 
names  :  Lafayette — Sumner. 

XII. 

At  last  the  long  struggle  was  drawing  to  a  close  ;  the 
battle  in  the  Senate  was  virtually  ended — the  victory 
won.  While  the  CONSTITUTIONAL  AMENDMENT  ABOLISH 
ING  SLAVERY  THROUGHOUT  THE  UNITED  STATES,  was  on 
its  passage,  8th  of  April,  1864,  the  great  Massachusetts 
Senator  rose  in  his  place  in  the  Senate  House,  and 
delivered  his  final  argument,  which  opened  with  these 
words  :— 

MR.  PRESIDENT, — If  an  angel  from  the  skies  or  a  stranger  from 
another  planet  were  permitted  to  visit  this  earth  and  to  examine  its 
surface,  who  can  doubt  that  his  eyes  would  rest  with  astonishment  upon 
the  outstretched  extent  and  exhaustless  resources  of  this  republic,  young 
in  years,  but  already  noted  beyond  any  dynasty  in  history  ?  In  propor 
tion  as  he  considered  and  understood  all  that  enters  into  and  constitutes 
the  national  life,  his  astonishment  would  increase,  for  he  would  find  a 
numerous  people,  powerful  beyond  precedent,  without  king  or  noble, 
but  with  the  schoolmaster  instead.  And  yet  the  astonishment  he  con- 


THE   CONSTITUTION   OPPOSED   TO   SLAVERY.  471 

fessed,  as  all  these  things  unrolled  before  him,  would  swell  into  marvel, 
as  he  learned  that  in  this  republic,  arresting  his  admiration,  where  is 
neither  king  nor  noble,  but  the  schoolmaster  instead,  there  are  four 
million  human  beings  in  abject  bondage,  degraded  to  be  chattels,  under 
the  pretence  of  property  in  man,  driven  by  the  lash  like  beasts,  despoiled 
of  all  their  rights,  even  the  right  to  knowledge  and  the  sacred  right  of 
family,  so  that  the  relation  of  husband  and  wife  is  impossible,  and  no 
parent  can  claim  his  own  child,  while  all  are  condemned  to  brutish 
ignorance.  Startled  by  what  he  beheld,  the  stranger  would  naturally 
inquire  by  what  authority,  under  what  sanction,  and  through  what  terms 
of  law  or  constitution,  this  fearful  inconsistency,  so  shocking  to  human 
nature  itself,  continues  to  be  upheld.  His  growing  wonder  would  know- 
no  bounds,  when  he  was'  pointed  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  as  final  guardian  and  conservator  of  this  peculiar  and  many- 
headed  wickedness. 

XIII. 

After  showing  that  Slavery  finds  no  support  in  the 
Constitution,  he  glances  at  the  positive  provisions  by 
which  it  is  brought  completely  under  the  control  of 
Congress,— 

i.  Among  the  powers  of  Congress,  and  associated 
with  the  power  to  lay  and  collect  taxes,  is  that  "  to  pro 
vide  for  the  common  defence  and  general  welfare."  In 
the  Virginia  Convention,  Mr.  GEORGE  MASON,  a  most 
decided  opponent  of  the  Constitution,  said  :  '•'  That 
Congress  should  have  power  to  provide  for  the  general 
welfare  of  the  Union,  I  grant."  But  PATRICK  HENRV 
was  far  more  explicit ;  he  foresaw  that  this  power  would 
be  directed  against  Slavery,  and  he  unhesitatingly  de 
clared  : 

Slavery  is  detested.  We  feel  its  fatal  effects.  We  deplore  it,  with 
all  the  pity  of  humanity.  Let  all  these  considerations,  at  some  future 
period,  press  with  full  force  on  the  mind  of  Congress.  T^et  that  ur 
banity,  which,  I  trust,  will  distinguish  America,  and  the  necessity  of 
of  national  defence — let  all  these  things  operate  on  their  minds.  They 


472  THE   CONSTITUTION   ANALYZED. 

will  search  that  paper — the  Constitution — and  see  if  they  have  power 
of  manumission — and  have  they  not,  sir?  Have  they  not  power  to  pro- 
ride  for  the  general  defence  and  welfare  ?  May  they  not  think  that  these 
call  for  the  abolition  of  Slavery  ?  May  they  not  pronounce  all  slaves 
free  ?  And  will  they  not  be  warranted  by  that  power  ?  This  is  no  ambi 
guous  implication  or  logical  deduction.  The  paper  speaks  to  the  point 
— they  have  the  power  in  clear,  unequivocal  terms,  and  will  clearly  and 
certainly  exercise  it. 

2.  Next  comes  the  fountain.      "  Congress  shall   have 
power  to  declare  war,  to  raise  and   support   armies,  to 
provide   and    maintain   a   navy."      He   shows  that   this 
power  must  authorize  the  government  to  contract  with 
all  enlisted  soldiers,  and  such  a  contract   would   be   an 
act  of  manumission,  for  a  slave  cannot  make  a  contract. 

3.  There  is  still  another  clause.      "  The  United  States 
shall  guarantee  to  every  State  in  this  Union,  a  Republi 
can  form  of  Government."     JOHN  ADAMS,  in  the  corre 
spondence  of  his  old  age,  says:    "The  customary  mean 
ings  of  the  words  '  Republican  '  and  '  Commonwealth  ' 
have  been  infinite.     They  have  been  applied   to   every 
government  under  heaven — that  of  Turkey,  and  that  of 
Spain,  as  well  as  that  of  Athens,  and  of  Rome  ;   of  Ge 
neva    and   San   Marino."     But   the    guaranteeing    of  a 
Republican  form  of  Government,  was  too  explicit  to  leave 
any  doubt ;  and  such  a  form  could  not  embrace  involun 
tary  servitude. 

4.  Another  source  of  power  is  found  in — "  No  person 
shall  be  deprived  of  life,  liberty  or  property,  without  due 
process  of  law."  Liberty  can  thus  be  lost,  only  by  "  due 
process  of  law."  This  was  the  sheet-anchor  of  all  the 
old  Bills  of  Rights.  So  Lord  Coke  defined  it  as  being 
borrowed  from  the  Common  Law.  The  late  Justice 
BRONSON,  of  New  York,  in  a  judicial  opinion,  said : 
"  The  meaning  of  the  section,  then,  seems  to  be,  that  no 


CONSTITUTIONAL   SLAVERY   AN   OUTLAW.  473 

member  of  the  State  shall  be  disfranchised,  or  deprived 
of  any  of  his  rights  or  privileges,  unless  the  matter  shall 
be  adjudged  against  him  upon  trial  had  according  to  the 
course  of  the  Common  Law.  *  *  The  words  '  due  pro 
cess  of  law/  in  this  place,  cannot  mean  less  than  a  pro 
secution  or  suit  instituted  and  conducted  according  to 
the  prescribed  forms  and  solemnities  for  ascertaining 
guilt,  or  determining  the  title  to  property."  He  thus 
argues  conclusively  that,  under  these  guarantees  and 
prohibitions,  no  person  can  be  held  as  a  slave. 

''Constitutional  slavery,"  Mr.  SUMNER  said,  "has  al 
ways  been  an  outlaw  wherever  that  provision  of  the  Con 
stitution  was  applicable.  Nothing  against  slavery  can  be 
unconstitutional :  it  is  hesitation  that  is  unconstitutional. 
And  yet,  slavery  still  exists,  in  defiance  of  all  these  require 
ments,"  and  he  demands  that  it  shall  be  forever  abolished, 
by  the  supreme  authority  of  the  Republic.  That 
authority,  he  claims,  does  exist  in  Congress,  which  is 
clothed  with  the  supreme  power  of  legislation  ;  and  if 
this  shall  be  called  in  question,  we  have  that  grand  re 
course  still  left, — appealing  to  the  authority  which  made 
the  Constitution.  Therefore  he  argues  for  that  Amend 
ment  which  was  ultimately  to  follow  the  law  as  enacted 
by  Congress,  after  the  hard  struggle  Liberty  had  to  go 
through,  to  achieve  its  final  victory. 

XIV. 

Tuesday,  the  27th  day  of  January,  1865,  was  the  time 
for  the  final  vote  on  the  Amendment  to  the  Constitu 
tion,  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  Vice-President 
WILSON  says  in  his  "Anti-Slavery  Measures  of  Con 
gress,"- 


474  WILSON'S  ANTI-SLAVERY  MEASURES. 

Notice  had  been  previously  given,  by  Mr.  Ashley,  that  the  vote  would 
be  taken  on  that  day.  The  nation,  realizing  the  transcendent  magni 
tude  of  the  issue,  awaited  the  result  with  profound  anxiety.  The 
galleries,  and  the  avenues  leading  to  them,  were  early  thronged  by  a 
dense  mass  intensely  anxious  to  witness  the  scene.  Senators,  Cabinet 
officers,  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  even  strangers,  crowding 
on  to  the  floor  of  the  House,  watched  its  proceedings  with  absorbing 
interest.  During  the  roll-call,  the  vote  of  Speaker  Colfax,  and  the 
votes  of  Mr.  English,  Mr.  Ganson,  and  Mr.  Baldwin,  with  assured 
success,  were  warmly  applauded  by  the  Republican  side.  And  when 
the  Speaker  declared,  that,  the  Constitutional  majority  of  two-thirds 
having  voted  in  the  affirmative,  the  joint  resolution  was  passed,  the  an 
nouncement  was  received  by  the  House  and  the  spectators  on  the  floor 
with  a  wild  outburst  of  enthusiastic  applause.  The  Republican  members 
instantly  sprang  to  their  feet,  and  applauded  with  cheers  and  clapping 
of  hands.  The  spectators  in  the  crowded  galleries  waved  their  hats, 
and  made  the  Chamber  ring  with  enthusiastic  plaudits.  Hundreds  of 
ladies,  gracing  the  galleries  with  their  presence,  rose  in  their  seats  ;  and 
by  waving  their  handkerchiefs,  and  participating  in  the  general  demon 
stration  of  enthusiasm,  added  to  the  intense  excitement  and  interest  of  a 
scene  that  will  long  be  remembered  by  those  who  were  fortunate  enough 
to  witness  it.  For  several  minutes,  the  friends  of  this  crowning  act  of 
emancipation  gave  themselves  up  to  congratulations  and  demonstrations 
of  public  joy.  "In  honor,"  said  Mr.  Ingersoll  (Rep.),  of  Illinois,  "of 
this  immortal  and  sublime  event,  I  move  that  the  House  adjourn." 
The  Speaker  declared  the  motion  carried  ;  and  then,  again,  cheering  and 
demonstrations  of  applause  were  renewed.  Mr.  Harris  (Dem.),  of 
Maryland,  demanded  the  yeas  and  nays  on  the  adjournment,  yeas,  121  ; 
nays,  24.  So  the  House  adjourned,  having  on  that  day  passed  a  measure 
which  made  Slavery  forever  impossible  in  the  Republic  of  the  United 
States. 

XV. 

Those  who  knew  and  loved  Mr.  Lincoln  as  many  of  us 
did,  were  more  disposed  to  sympathize  with  him  in  the 
deep  sadness  which  weighed  down  his  spirit,  than  to 
criticise  his  occasional  facetious  remarks,  in  which,  on 
his  account  chiefly,  we  were  so  glad  to  hear  him  indulge 


THE   DARK   IN   THE   WHITE   HOUSE.  475 

The   following"   extracts    from    OUR     FIRST     HUNDRED 
YEARS,  page  596,  may  illustrate  the  subject : 

The  Dark  in  the  White  House,— -Feb.  22,  1862.— "Willie  Lincoln 
is  dead  ! "  Everybody  in  Washington  knew  Willie  ;  and  everybody  was 
sad.  Sad, — for  it  seemed  hard  for  the  lovely  boy  to  be  taken  away  so 
early,  while  the  sun  was  just  gilding  the  mountain  up  which  he  was 
pressing,  and  from  which  he  could  look  down  the  sweet  valley,  and 
see  so  far  into  the  future  !  Sad  for  her  who  held  him  as  one  of  the  jew 
els  of  her  home-coronet ;  dearer  than  all  the  insignia  of  this  world's 
rank.  That  coronet  was  broken,  now.  Its  fragments  might  dazzle, 
and  grace  still ;  but  it  could  never  be  the  same  coronet  again.  Sad  for 
the  master  of  the  Executive  Mansion,  for  there  was  weight  enough 
pressing  on  that  tired  brain, — sorrow  enough  in  that  great  heart.  With 
the  burden  of  a  mighty  republic  on  his  shoulders — a  republic  betrayed, 
and  wounded  in  the  house  of  its  friends — a  republic  that  had  cost  so 
much  and  become  so  dear  to  its  own  true  children,  and  in  whose  pros 
perity  the  hopes  of  all  men  who  waited  for  the  consolation  of  the  na 
tions,  were  bound  up — a  republic  for  whose  safety  and  triumph,  God, 
angels,  and  all  good  men  would  forever  hold  him  responsible,  and  dis 
aster  clouding  almost  every  battle-field — it  seemed  to  us  for  a  moment, 
when  we  heard  the  news  of  the  boy's  death,  that  even  heaven's  own 
"  sweet  fountain  "  of  pity  had  dried  up. 

It  was  a  wild  winter  night,  but  I  wished  to  see  again  how  far  the  pro 
cess  of  Willie's  embalmment  had  gone,  and  as  Dr.  B was  to  make 

one  more  visit  that  night,  I  took  his  arm  at  a  late  hour,  and  we  walked 
up  together.  The  wind  howled  desolately ;  angry  gusts  struck  us  at 
every  corner  :  tempest-clouds  were  careering  high  up  in  the  heavens  : 
and  the  dead  leaves  of  last  year,  as  they  flew  cuttingly  against  our 
cheeks,  seemed  to  have  come  out  of  their  still  graves  to  "join  in  the 
dreadful  revelry"  of  the  death  of  the  Republic  of  Washington,  on  the 
very  anniversary  of  his  birth  — for  it  was  on  the  eve  of  the  22d  of  Feb 
ruary,  the  night  in  which  he  was  born. 

"  Is  it  not  among  the  strangest  of  things  that  this  event  should  have 
happened  ?  "  "  No,  doctor  :  I  do  not  so  regard  it ;  still  stranger  events 
than  this  have  taken  place  in  the  White  House.  It  has  been  no  more 
exempt  from  trouble,  than  the  other  dwellings  of  America.  Poor  Gen 
eral  Harrison  entered  it,  as  a  Prince  goes  to  his  palace  to  rule  a  great 
people ;  in  one  month  he  was  borne  from  it,  to  his  grave.  General 
Taylor,  fresh  from  the  fields  of  his  fame  as  a  patriot  warrior,  came  here 


4/6  HINTS   FOR   UNION   SPEECHES. 

only  to  pass  a  few  months  of  troubled  life,  and  then  surrender  to  the 
only  enemy  he  ever  yielded  to.  Fillmore,  who  also  was  summoned 
here  by  the  act  of  God,  after  acquitting  himself  most  manfully  and  hon 
orably  of  all  his  duties,  had  scarcely  vacated  the  mansion,  before  he  was 
called  to  entomb  the  wife  of  his  youth  and  the  mother  of  his  children, 
of  whom  the  fair  one  he  loved  best,  soon  after  went  to  the  same  repose. 
He  descended  from  his  high  place  to  become  the  chief  mourner  ;  and 
his  ovation  was  a  funeral  at  Buffalo.  So,  too,  with  his  successor,  who 
left  the  new-made  grave  of  his  only  son  in  Concord,  killed  in  an  instant, 
to  be  inaugurated  at  the  Capitol,  and  enter  as  a  mourner,  this  stately 
mansion." 

"Yes,  gentlemen,"  said  Edward,  the  chief  door-keeper,  "it  is  all 
still  in  the  house  now."  We  entered  the  Green  Room  ;  Willie  lay  in 
his  coffin.  The  lid  was  off.  He  was  clothed  in  his  soldier's  dress.  He 
had  been  embalmed  by  the  process  of  Susquet,  of  Paris,  and  thus  Wil 
lie  Wallace  Lincoln's  body  was  prepared  for  its  final  resting-place  in 
the  home  of  his  happy  childhood.  One  more  look  at  the  calm  face, 
which  still  wore  its  wonted  expression  of  hope  and  cheerfulness,  and  we 
left  him  to  his  repose. 

In  the  meantime,  a  measured  footfall  had  come  faintly  from  the  East 
Room,  and  the  tall  form  of  the  chief  mourner  was  passing  into  the  sa 
cred  place.  "Is  it  all  well? — All  my  thanks."  Leaving  the  stricken 
President  in  the  solemn  silence  of  the  deep  night,  alone  with  his  boy, 
we  passed  out  of  the  mansion.  The  coming  storm  was  clouding  the 
heavens  with  a  deep  mourning,  and  its  heavy  sighings  wrapped  the 
Home  of  the  Presidents  in  sadness  and  gloom.  "  God  heal  the  broken 
hearts  left  there,"  was  our  only  prayer. 

XVI. 

Being  frequently  asked  during  the  war,  to  help  friends 
prepare  addresses  to  be  delivered  on  the  all-engrossing 
topic  of  the  time,  I  sent  the  following  hints  for  their 
use  :— 

WASHINGTON,  Feb.  22,  1862. 

THE  IMMOLATION  AND  REDEMPTION  OF  THE  AFRICAN  RACE. 
Nations  pay  dear  for  liberty.     Civilization — the   sole  object  of  free 
government — crystallizes  slow.      But,  once   firmly  established,  it  resists 
the  untiring  "  course  of  all-impairing  Time." 


HOW   SLAVERY   HAS   DESTROYED   NATIONS.  477 

The  true  civilization,  in  perfection,  is  yet  to  come.  The  world  has 
been  filled  with  false  civilizations  ;  and  history  shows  that  they  have 
not  vitality  enough  to  preserve  nations  from  decadence. 

It  has  been  just  as  plainly  proved  that  where  slavery  existed  it  either 
destroyed  civilization,  or  was  destroyed  by  it.  The  two  never  could 
live  together.  China  and  Japan  are  the  only  two  ancient  Asiatic 
•nations  that  have  preserved  their  early  civilization,  or  even  their  exist 
ence.  Slavery  never  existed  among  them. 

So  in  Europe  :  Slavery  destroyed  every  European  nation  that  main 
tained  it.  Greece,  Rome,  the  empire  of  the  Othman, — where  are  they  ? 
But  Slavery  never  existed  among  the  Magyars  or  Slavonic  nations  ; 
nor  have  they  ever  been  subjugated,  much  less  destroyed.  Hungary 
is  a  vast  and  illuminated  nation,  and  is  advancing  in  civilization  ;  while 
Russia  has  removed  the  last  encumbrance  to  her  progress  by  emanci 
pating  twenty  million  serfs,  and  is  now  moving  on  to  complete  civiliza 
tion  faster  than  any  other  people.  The  Swiss  never  breathed  the  tainted 
air  of  slavery  ;  her  people  have  always  been  free,  and  in  civilization 
they  have  lagged  behind  those  of  no  other  country. 

At  an  early  period  England  and  France  abolished  villanage,  and  fol 
lowed  in  the  wake  of  Italy,  which  was  the  first  of  the  nations  to  give 
revival  to  letters,  commerce,  and  arts. 

So  we  find  that  just  in  proportion  as  nations  emancipated  themselves 
from  the  thraldom  of  a  system  of  forced  or  involuntary  labor,  just  in 
that  proportion  they  advanced  in  knowledge,  wealth,  and  the  elements 
of  endurance.  A  careful  survey  of  truthful  history  would  establish  this 
as  a  fixed  and  clearly-determined  law  for  the  physical  and  moral  progress 
and  development  of  states.  Nations  may  grow  strong,  or  rather  for 
midable,  for  a  while,  under  the  sceptre  of  a  tyrant,  and  the  slave-lash 
of  an  oligarchy.  But  such  strength  is  weakness  :  it  does  not  last.  It 
is  against  all  the  ordinances  of  God  that  it  should. 

This  is  pre-eminently  true  in  our  age,  when  daylight  is  dawning  upon 
all  peoples.  Darkness  has  lost  its  power.  Universal  light  is  now  assert 
ing  its  dominion.  No  power  can  contend  against  it.  Darkness  must 
give  way. 

So  far  as  my  argument  on  the  subject  of  slavery  in  the  United  States 
or  elsewhere  is  concerned,  it  matters  not  whether  the  reader  accept  or 
not  the  code  of  revealed  religion  which  I  offer  as  authority ;  for  profane 
history  coincides  with  it  perfectly.  There  is  no  sort  of  conflict  between 
the  two.  The  plagues  that  wasted  the  vitals  of  dead  nations  are  just  as 
legibly  inscribed  on  their  tombs,  for  their  readers,  as  they  were  on  the 


4/8  DEBT   OF   AMERICA   TO   AFRICA. 

pages  of  prophecy  before  the  events  took  place.  God  alone  writes 
history  before  it  happens.  Both  records  are  so  clear  that  he  who  runs 
may  read  ;  and  the  wise  and  good  man  who  reads  either  will  run  to 
rescue  his  country  from  the  curse  which  God  has  chained  to  the  chariot- 
wheels  even  of  the  mightiest  empires  which  dare  to  make  war  on  the 
eternal  principles  of  justice  which  support  his  empire. 

Go  where  we  will,  from  the  Pillars  of  Hercules  to  the  gates  of  the 
Oriental  morning, — 

"  Rude  fragments  now 

Lie  scatter'd  where  the  shapely  column  stood. 
Their  palaces  are  dust." 

Journey  through  the  home  of  the  Saracens, — a  race  of  scholars  and 
warriors, — 

"Dead  Petra  in  her  hill-tomb  sleeps  : 
Her  stones  of  emptiness  remain  ; 
Around  her  sculptured  mystery  sweeps 
The  lonely  waste  of  Edom's  plain. 

"Unchanged  the  awful  lithograph 

Of  power  and  glory  undertrod,— 
Of  nations  scatter'd  like  the  chaff 

Blown  from  the  threshing-floor  of  God." 

Let  us  calculate  the  debt  which  America  owes  to  Africa.  We  can  reach 
something  like  an  approximation  to  the  number  of  Africans  or  Africano- 
Americans  who  have  lived  and  died  on  our  soil.  We  do  not  propose 
to  enumerate  any  considerable  portion  of  the  wrongs  we  have  inflicted 
on  that  people, — how  many  we  stole  from  their  homes,— how  many 
perished  in  the  passage, — ho\v  many  cruelties  and  indignities  they  and 
their  descendants  have  suffered,  and  are  suffering  to  this  horr.  That 
were  a  work  for  which  any  created  being  would  find  himself  unequal. 
It  will  be  found  to  occupy  no  inconsiderable  space  in  the  records  of 
the  last  tribunal  before  which  the  human  race  will  be  cited  to  appear. 

We  will  therefore  determine,  as  accurately  as  we  can,  how  many  lives. 
Africa  has  offered  up  for  this  nation.  But  first  let  us  glance  at  the 
origin  of  slavery  in  the  United  States.  We  borrow  a  striking  passage 
from  the  classic  and  powerful  pen  of  Senator  Sumner,  who  has  probably 
investigated  the  whole  African  question,  in  all  its  relations,  more  pro 
foundly  than  any  other  man  living, — certainly  more  so  than  any  other 
American.  In  one  of  his  orations  he  draws  the  following  picturesque 
ar.d  start  ing  contrast : — 


THIRTEEN    MILLION   AFRICANS    IMMOLATED.  479 

"In  the  winter  of  1620,  the  Mayflower  landed  its  precious  cargo  at 
Plymouth  rock.  This  small  band,  cheered  by  the  valedictory  prayers 
o  the  Puritan  pastor,  John  Robinson,  braved  sea  and  wilderness  for  the 
sake  of  liberty.  In  this  inspiration  our  Commonwealth  began.  That 
s  ime  year  another  cargo,  of  another  character,  was  landed  at  James 
town,  in  Virginia.  It  was  nineteen  slaves, — the  first  that  ever  touched 
and  darkened  our  soil.  Never  in  history  was  greater  contrast.  There 
was  the  Mayflower,  filled  with  men, — intelligent,  conscientious,  prayer 
ful, — all  braced  to  hardy  industry,  who,  before  landing,*  united  in  a 
written  compact  by  which  they  constituted  themselves  a  '  civil  body 
politic,'  bound  '  to  frame  just  and  equal  laws.'  And  there  was  the 
slave-ship,  with  its  fetters,  its  chains,  its  bludgeons,  and  its  whips,  with 
its  wretched  victims, — forerunners  of  the  long  agony  of  the  slave-trade, 
— and  with  its  wretched  tyrants,  rude,  ignorant,  and  profane, 

'  who  had  learn'  d  their  only  prayers 
From  curses,'          ***** 

and  who  carried  in  their  hold  the  barbarous  slavery  whose  single  object 
is  to  compel  labor  without  wages,  which  no  just  and  equal  laws  can  sanc 
tion. 

"Thus  in  the  same  year,"  says  Charles  Sumner,  "began  two  mighty 
influences ;  and  these  two  influences  still  prevail  far  and  wide  through 
out  the  country.  But  they  have  met  at  last  in  final  grapple  ;  and  you 
and  I  are  partakers  in  this  holy  conflict.  The  question  is  simply  be 
tween  the  Mayflower  and  the  slave-ship." 

Beginning  with  the  first  importation  of  Africans  in  1620  (nineteen), 
we  find  their  increase  till  1790,  slave  and  free,  amounting  to  757,363, 
From  1790  (first  census)  to  1860  (eighth  census),  slave  and  free,  4,441,- 
730.  It  is  and  will  always  remain  impossible  to  determine  the  number 
of  the  African  race  whose  ashes  sleep  in  our  soil;  but,  applying  the  ratio 
of  increase  from  1790  to  1860  to  the  period  undetermined,  it  is  easy  to 
approximate  the  number.  My  most  careful  estimate  renders  it  certain 
that  the  number  of  persons  of  African  descent  who  have  died  in  our 
country  cannot  fall  short  of  eight  millions  and  a  half,  or  nearly  twice  as 
many  as  are  now  living. 

Thus  we  roll  up  the  figures  to  thirteen  millions,  living  and  dead,  each 
one  of  whom  has  felt  the  blighting  curse  of  slavery, — more  or  less  of 
the  miseries  and  degradation  which  are  its  legitimate  and  inevitable 
consequences ! 

This  is  the  immolation  ;  and  it  is  the  most  appalling  and  stupendous 


480  COUNTS   IX   OUR   TERRIBLE    INDICTMENT. 

in  the  annals  of  the  human  race.  Leaving  out  all  the  barbarities  attend 
ing  the  capture  and  ocean-transportation  ;  the  brutal  atrocities  the 
stolen  Africans  suffered  by  a  system  of  merciless  task-labor  under  the 
lash,  the  maiming  and  torture  of  nerve  and  muscle,  with  the  endless 
category  of  physical  suffering,  still  each  one  of  the  mighty  host  of  Afri- 
cano-Americans — an  army  of  thirteen  millions^  bond  and  free,  living  and 
dead — appears  in  solemn  judgment  against  his  individual  oppressor  and 
against  the  whole  nation.  The  one  has  perpetrated  the  murder,  and 
the  Government  has  stood  by  and  consented  unto  his  death,  and  held 
the  garments  of  those  that  slew  him. 

What  are  the  counts  in  this  terrible  indictment  ? 

1.  The  annihilation  of  home,  whose  charities  are  just  as  dear  to  the 
lower  as  to  the  higher  classes  of  beings.      Torn  from  their  continental 
homes  and  transplanted  to  a  new  world,  they  should  at  least  have  had  a 
chance  to  strike  their  roots  into  a  stranger  soil.     But  cupidity,  accident, 
or  caprice  tore  the  plant  up  by  the  roots,  and,  with  comparatively  few 
exceptions,  subjected  it  to  a  new  and  trying  process  of  acclimation. 

2.  The  annihilation  of  marriage.     This  sacrilegious  blow  at  the  first, 
the  holiest,  and  the  dearest  of  all  God's  institutions  struck  the  race.     It 
cast  the  deadliest  blight  which  can  fall  on  man.     It  made  more  bastards 
in  America  than  ever  lived  elsewhere  under  heaven. 

3.  The  annihilation  of  light.  .  This  means  the  impious  inauguration 
of  heathenism  in  the  very  garden  of  God.     No  home,  no  wife  or  children 
he  can  call  his  own  !     Can  a  higher  insult  be  offered  to  a  man  made  in 
the  divine  image  and  for  whom  the  Son  of  man  died?     Oh,  how  incom 
parably  blessed  in  the  contrast  was  the  Thracian  slave  dragged  to  Rome 
to  make,  in  the  arena,  a  holiday  for  the  slave-holders  of  the   Eternal 
City  !     He  left  at  least  a  home,  wife,  children. 

"I  see  before  me  the  gladiator  lie  : 

He  leans  upon  his  hand ;  his  manly  brow 
Consents  to  death,  but  conquers  agony. 
*  *  *  *       His  eyes 

Were  with  his  heart,  and  that  was  far  away  : 
He  reck'd  not  of  the  life  he  lost,  nor  prize, — 
But  where  his  rude  hut  by  the  Danube  lay. 
There  were  his  young  barbarians,  all  at  play, — 
There  was  their  Dacian  mother, — he,  their  sire, 
Butcher'd  to  make  a  Roman  holiday  ! 
All  this  rush'd  with  his  blood  :  shall  he  expire, 
And  unavenged  ?     Arise  !  ye  Goths,  and  glut  your  ire  !" 


WHAT   AFRICA   HAS   SUFFERED.  481 

I  am  fully  aware  that  a  fallacy  will  be  alleged  against  this  argument, 
— that  a  demurrer  will  be  entered  against  each  and  every  count  in  the 
general  indictment.  It  will  be  said, — 

i st.  That  through  slavery  and  the  slave-trade  alone  have  any  portion 
of  the  African  race  been  introduced  to  the  light  and  blessings  of  civili 
zation.  This  is  a  mean  and  blasphemous  subterfuge.  Just  as  though 
any  such  idea  ever  mixed  itself  up  with  the  thoughts  of  the  slave- 
vampires  of  the  African  coast !  Just  as  though  the  century-protracted 
efforts  of  the  Saracens  to  overthrow  the  religion  of  Christ  were  worthy 
of  praise  because  they  brought  Christendom  to  its  feet,  in  the  vindication 
of  Christianity  !  As  soon  should  the  sight  of  the  fair-haired  Angli  boys 
brought  to  Rome  and  sold  as  slaves,  and  thus  become  the  occasion  of 
the  introduction  of  the  gospel  into  Britain,  have  justified  the  kidnappers 
who  did  the  nefarious  work  !  As  soon  plead  pardon  for  the  traitor  of 
all  the  ages  for  selling  the  Man  of  sorrows,  because  "  when  he  bowed 
his  head  on  the  cross  he  dragged  the  pillars  of  Satan's  kingdom  to  the 
dust." 

2d.  They  have  risen  far  higher  here  in  the  scale  of  physical  comfort. 
This  I  deny.  They  have  not,  as  a  community ',  enjoyed  as  much  physi 
cal  comfort  as  the  wild  beast  in  his  lair,  or  the  cattle  on  a  thousand 
hills.  By  no  means  has  their  animal  condition  approached  that  of  the 
native  African  tribes. 

I  fully  believe — yea,  I  certainly  know,  and  I  believe  and  know  it 
more  profoundly  than  any  slaughterer  of  men — that  the  wrath  of  man 
shall  be  made  to  praise  God,  while  the  remainder  thereof  he  will 
restrain.  But  let  no  man,  who  has  ever  been  a  willing  party  to  the 
awful  crime  we  are  speaking  of,  come  forward  now,  while  daylight  is 
breaking  over  Africa,  and  claim  any  participation  in  the  glory  which  is 
coming.  For  this  dawn  such  men  never  longed  ;  they  never  con 
templated  that  rising  sun  with  any  exultation. 

And  yet  how  nobly  has  Africa  earned  the  boon  of  civilized  life  ! 
She  has  from  the  earliest  ages  been  the  slave  of  the  nations.  All  men 
who  had  ships  went  to  her  coasts  and  sailed  up  her  great  rivers  to  steal 
her  children.  The  Egyptians  lashed  them  to  their  toil,  in  the  valley  of 
the  Nile.  The  Phoenicians,  the  Carthaginians,  and  the  Arabs  stole 
them  from  the  Mediterranean  coast.  The  Portuguese,  the  Spanish,  the 
Dutch,  the  English,  kidnapped  them  by  the  hundred  thousand  on  the 
coast  of  the  Atlantic  ;  and,  last  of  all, — as  late  as  within  the  memory  of 
men  now  living, — the  African  slave-trade  constituted  the  most  profitable 
branch  of  the  commerce  of  New  England. 
31 


482  ALL   HAIL,    NIOBE   OF    NATIONS1. 

The  blessed  light  of  civilization  which  had  irradiated  every  other  con 
tinent  never  illuminated  Africa.  Great  empires  had  been  founded  on 
the  African  coasts, — the  arts  that  exalt  and  embellish  life  had  been 
carried  and  cultured  there  by  the  Pharaohs,  the  Alexanders,  the  Han- 
uibals, — the  Arab,  the  Saracen,  the  Moor,  and  the  Briton  ;  but  it  was 
not  for  the  poor  African.  Light,  which  came  to  all  others,  came  not 
to  him.  Every  empire  ever  founded  in  Africa  was  cemented  by  the 
blood  of  her  helpless  people.  But  the  day  of  her  emancipation  has 
come. 

She  has  waited  for  it  over  three  thousand  years.  God  has  accepted 
the  sacrifice.  The  indications  of  Providence  are  too  plain  to  be  mis 
taken.  No  unknown  portion  of  the  globe  has  been  so  thoroughly  ex 
plored  during  the  present  century.  No  nation  has  ever  been  so  ready 
to  receive  Christianity  and  the  arts  of  peace.  No  one  can  more  readily 
be  brought  into  the  family  of  nations.  No  country  ever  had  so  many 
missionaries  ready  to  carry  to  a  benighted  continent  commerce,  agricul 
ture,  manufactures,  education,  and  the  light  of  everlasting  truths. 


.All  hail,  then,  Niobe  of  the  nations  ! 

•"Behold,  I  have  taken  out  of  thine  hand  the  cup  of  trembling;  .  .  . 
thou  shalt  no  more  drink  it  again." 

"Behold,  I  will  lift  up  mine  hand  to  the  Gentiles,  and  set  up  my 
standard  to  the  people ;  and  they  shall  bring  thy  sons  in  their  arms,  and 
.thy  daughters  shall  be  carried  upon  their  shoulders." 

"Ye  shall  be  redeemed  without  money." 

"Thou  shalt  forget  the  shame  of  thy  youth,  and  shalt  not  remember 
the  reproach  of  thy  widowhood  any  more.  For  thy  Maker  is  thine 
husband,  .  .  .  and  thy  Redeemer  the  Holy  One  of  Israel." 

"  O  thou  afflicted,  tossed  with  tempest,  and  not  comforted,  behold,  I 
will  lay  thy  stones  with  fair  colors,  and  lay  thy  foundations  with  sap 
phires.  And  I  will  make  thy  windows  of  agates,  and  thy  gates  of  car 
buncles,  and  all  thy  borders  of  pleasant  stones.  And  all  thy  children 
-shall  be  taught  of  the  Lord  ;  and  great  shall  be  the  peace  of  thy  children. 
.  ..  .  Thou  shalt  be  far  from  oppression;  for  thou  shalt  not  fear:  and 
from  terror ;  for  it  shall  not  come  near  thee." 

"For  I  will  tread  them  in  mine  anger,  and  trample  them  in  my  fury; 
and  their  blood  shall  be  sprinkled  upon  my  garments,  and  1  will  stain 
all  my  raiment.  For  the  day  of  vengeance  is  in  mine  heart,  and  the 
year  of  my  redeemed  is  come." 


DUTY  TO  FALLEN  SOLDIERS.  483 

"  Ethiopia  shall  soon  stretch  out  her  hands  unto  God." 
"I  the  Lord  have  spoken  it."  * 

XVII. 

Feeling  very  deeply  the  ditty  of  the  Republic  to  its 
fallen  soldiers,  after  consultation  with  Mr.  SUMNER,  and 
many  of  our  leading  public  men  in  Washington,  I  pre 
pared  the  following,  which  was  effectively  used  in  the 
movement  soon  started,  and  pushed  with  such  great  vigor 
that  it  ended  in  the  establishment  of  the  National  Ceme 
teries,  which  have  reflected  so  much  honor  upon  the 
country : 

THE  DUTY  OF  THE  REPUBLIC  TO  ITS  FALLEN  HEROES. 

"Ccelumque  aspicit  et  dulcis  moriens  reminiscitur  Argos." — VIRG. 

"  Such  honors  Ilion  to  her  hero  paid, 

And  peaceful  slept  the  mighty  Hector's  shade. 

*  *  *  *  * 
Here  let  me  grow  to  earth!  since  Hector  lies 
On  the  bare  beach  deprived  of  obsequies. 
Oh,  give  rne  Hector!  to  my  eyes  restore 
His  corse,  and  take  the  gifts!  I  ask  no  more. 

*  *  *  *  * 

The  best,  the  bravest  of  my  sons  are  slain. 

*  *  *  *  *  * 
P'or  him  through  hostile  camps  I  bend  my  way. 

*  *  H=  *  * 

Lo!  to  thy  prayer  restored,  thy  breathless  son. 

*  *      *       *      * 

Steeped  in  their  blood,  and  in  the  dust  outspread, 
Nine  days  neglected,  lay  exposed  the  dead." — ILIAD. 

The  first  duty  of  a  Government  is  to  protect  the  life  of  the  soldier; 
the  second  is  to  give  him  honorable  burial  when  he  has  fought  his  last 
battle.  This  duty  has  been  recognized  by  all  nations,  and  it  has  been 

*  "And  we  may  see  in  all  this  that  law  of  compensation  which  God  vouchsafes  the 
wrpnged  and  suffering  for  all  their  woes  and  suffering.  After  being  afflicted  by  nigh 
three  centuries  of  servitude,  God  calls  chosen  men  of  this  race  from  all  the  lands  of 
their  thraldom,  men  laden  with  gifts, — intelligence  and  piety, — to  the  grand  and  noble 


484  PLEA    FOR   NATIONAL   CEMETERIES. 

considered  imperative.  No  nation  so  barbarous  as  to  neglect  the  ashes 
of  its  patriots,  —  no  family  so  divested  of  social  affection  as  not  to  de 
sire  to  recover  the  earthly  relics  of  one  of  their  number  who  died  awav 
from  home. 

That  mysterious  chain  which  binds  the  heart  of  the  survivor  to  thu 
dust  of  the  departed  is  now  binding  the  hearts  of  an  innumerable  com 
pany  of  our  people  to  the  graves  of  our  fallen  soldiers.  To  recover 
the  ashes  of  the  loved  one  is  the  first  thought  that  occurs ;  and  the  un 
certainty  of  the  spot  where  the  body  is  reposing  intensifies  the  grief. 
Promiscuous  burial  the  human  soul  abhors. 

This  feeling  is  natural,  and  it  cannot  be  repressed.  Virgil  has  beau- 
fully  expressed  it  in  the  line  we  have  quoted  above  With  his  back  to 
the  earth  and  his  eyes  on  heaven,  the  dying  soldier  thinks  of  his  beloved 
home.  It  is  generally  among  the  very  last  wishes  of  those  dying  among 
strangers,  that  they  could  die  at  home. 

Our  fancies  will  visit  the  red  fields  of  valor  which  have  been  sancti 
fied  by  the  baptism  of  patriotic  blood  ;  they  will  haunt  the  halls  of  our 
hospitals,  filled  with  the  suffering,  and  steal  into  the  countless  chambers 
of  the  bereaved,  where  Rachels  are  "weeping  for  their  children,  and 
will  not  be  comforted,  because  they  are  not." 

The  duties  of  Governments  to  their  fallen  soldiers  apply  with  pecu 
liar  force  to  the  soldiers  and  families  of  republics.  Our  grand  army  of 
a  million  men  is  a  fair,  full,  and  honorable  representation  of  the  great 
body  of  the  people.  There  are  whole  regiments  and  brigades  where 
there  is  not  a  man  who  did  not  leave  home  and  kindred  for  the  war, — 
kindred  who  watch  with  tenderness  and  apprehension  the  news  of  every 
battle,  and  whose  affection  spreads  its  drooping  wings  over  the  camp 
where  the  soldier  sleeps.  How  many  of  our  rank  and  file  would  not 
have  Christian  burial  if  they  died  at  home,  and  some  plain  stone,  at 
least,  in  memoriam,  placed  to  mark  the  last  couch  of  the  sleeper? 
How  many  of  our  army,  fallen  already,  have  not  left  friends  who  would 
part  with  some  treasure  to  recover  the  bodies  of  those  they  loved,  or  at 
least  to  know  the  spot  of  sepulture  ? 

Hundreds  of  instances — yes,  thousands — are  known  of  attempts, 
often  fruitless,  to  find,  identify,  mark,  the  spot,  or  make  inquiries  about 

mission  which  they  only  can  fulfil, — even  to  plant  colonies,  establish  churches,  found 
missions,  and  lay  the  foundations  of  universities  along  the  shores  and  beside  the  banks 
of  the  great  rivers  of  Africa,  so  that  the  grandeur  and  dignity  of  their  duties  may 
neutralize  all  the  long,  sad  memories  of  their  servitude  and  sorrows.'* — Grummet's 
Future  of  Africa,  p.  127. 


DOWNFALL   OF   THE   REBELLION.  485 

the  graves.  The  Western  battle-fields  alone  have  grouped  a  million 
stricken  hearts  around  those  suddenly-created  sepulchres  of  the  brave. 
Our  officers  and  soldiers  put  forth  their  last  heroic  exertions,  in  every 
skirmish  and  in  every  fight,  to  bring  off  our  dead,  or  bury  them  on  the 
field,  preserving  their  identity  as  far  as  the  horrible  exigencies  of  war 
will  allow. 

But  this  was  not  enough  ;  and  the  Sanitary  Commission  early  under 
took  to  obtain  information  by  which  "  the  place  of  burial  of  the  volun 
teers  who  have  been  killed  in  battle,  or  who  have  died  in  hospitals,  may 
be  established.  They  have  also  elaborated  a  system  of  records  for 
those  dying  in  hospitals,  and  of  indications  of  their  burial-place,  by 
which  their  bodies  may  be  identified  ;  which  has  received  approval,  and 
been  ordered  to  be  carried  out,  blanks  and  tablets  for  the  purpose 
being  furnished  to  each  regimental  quartermaster." 

This  plan  was  warmly  embraced  by  Congress  and  the  Soldiers'  Re 
lief  Associations,  and  it  was  in  the  main  adopted,  and  has  been  carried 
out  as  far  as  it  seemed  possible. 

One  thing  more  was  needed.  Besides  having  cemeteries,  larger  or 
smaller,  wherever  our  soldiers  have  fallen,  we  should  have  a  great 
national  cemetery  for  soldiers  near  Washington,  where  all  our  brave 
men  who  fall  in  the  service  in  this  neighborhood,  or  who  can  be  brought 
here,  may  have  honorable  graves.  Each  State  shall  have  a  space  al 
lotted  for  its  own  citizens  ;  and  this  City  of  the  Dead  should  be  embel 
lished  by  emblems  of  art  and  beauty,  which  exalt  and  refine  civilized  life. 
The  cost  of  this  war  for  one  hundred  minutes  would  munificently  ac 
complish  this. 


SECTION  TENTH. 

Downfall  of  the  Rebellion. 
I. 

MR.  GREELEY  has  given,  towards  the  close  of  his 
American  Conflict,  an  affecting  description  of  the  part 
ing  of  LEE  with  his  devoted  followers.  He  says  : 


486  GEN.  LEE'S  PARTING  WITH  HIS  SOLDIERS. 

It  was  a  sad  one.  Of  the  proud  army  which,  dating  its  victories  from 
Bull  Run,  had  driven  McClellan  from  before  Richmond,  and  withstood 
his  best  efforts  at  Antietam,  and  shattered  Burnside's  host  at  Fredericks- 
burg,  and  worsted  Hooker  at  Chancellorsville,  and  fought  Meade  so 
stoutly,  though  unsuccessfully,  before  Gettysburg,  and  baffled  Grant's 
bounteous  resources  and  desperate  efforts  in  the  Wilderness,  at  Spott- 
sylvania,  on  the  North  Anna,  at  Cold  Harbor,  and  before  Petersburg 
and  Richmond, — a  mere  wreck  remained.  It  is  said  that  27,000  were 
included  in  Lee's  capitulation;  but  of  these  not  more  than  10,000  had 
been  able  to  carry  their  arms  thus  far  on  their  hopeless  and  almost 
foodless  flight.  Barely  nineteen  miles  from  Richmond  when  surren 
dered,  the  physical  possibility  of  forcing  their  way  thither,  even  at  the 
cost  of  half  their  number,  no  longer  remained.  And  if  they  were  all 
safely  there,  what  then  ?  The  resources  of  the  Confederacy  were 
utterly  exhausted.  Of  the  150,000  men  whose  names  were  borne  on 
its  muster-rolls  a  few  weeks  ago,  at  least  one-third  were  already  disabled 
or  prisoners,  and  the  residue  could  neither  be  clad  nor  fed — not  to 
dream  of  their  being  fitly  armed  or  paid ;  while  the  resources  of  the 
loyal  States  were  scarcely  touched,  their  ranks  nearly  or  quite  as  full 
as  ever,  and  their  supply  of  ordnance,  small-arms,  munitions,  etc.,  more 
ample  than  in  any  previous  April.  Of  the  million  or  so  borne  on  our 
muster-rolls,  probably  not  less  than  half  were  then  in  active  service, 
with  half  so  many  more  able  to  take  the  field  at  short  notice.  The 
Rebellion  had  failed  and  gone  down ;  but  the  Rebel  Army  of  Virginia 
and  its  commander  had  not  failed.  Fighting  sternly  against  the  Inevit 
able — against  the  irrepressible  tendencies,  the  generous  aspirations  of 
the  age — they  had  been  proved  unable  to  succeed  where  success  would 
have  been  a  calamity  to  their  children,  to  their  country,  and  the  human 
race.  And,  when  the  transient  agony  of  defeat  had  been  endured  and 
had  passed,  they  all  experienced  a  sense  of  relief,  as  they  crowded 
around  their  departing  chief,  who,  with  streaming  eyes,  grasped  and 
pressed  their  outstretched  hands,  at  length  finding  words  to  say,  "  Men, 
we  have  fought  through  the  War  together.  I  have  done  the  best  that  I 
could  for  you."  There  were  few  dry  eyes  among  those  who  witnessed 
the  scene  ;  and  our  soldiers  hastened  to  divide  their  rations  with  their 
late  enemies,  now  fellow-countrymen,  to  stay  their  hunger  until  provi 
sions  from  our  trains  could  be  drawn  for  them.  Then,  while  most  of 
our  army  returned  to  Burkesville,  and  thence,  a  few  days  later,  to 
Petersburg  and  Richmond,  the  work  of  paroling  went  on,  under  the 
guardianship  of  Griffin's  and  Gibbon's  infantry,  with  McKenzie's  cavalry  ; 


LINCOLN'S  VISIT  TO  RICHMOND.  487 

and,  so  fast  as  paroled,  the  Confederates  took  their  way  severally  to 
their  respective  homes  :  many  of  them  supplied  with  transportation,  as 
well  as  food,  by  the  government  they  had  fought  so  long  and  so  bravely 
to  subvert  and  destroy. 

II. 

The  day  after  the  fall  of  Richmond,  Mr.  LINCOLN  vis 
ited  the  Capital  of  the  late  Confederacy,  so  recently  and 
suddenly  abandoned  by  its  fugitive  chief.  Being  recog 
nized  by  the  Black  population  as  he  entered  Richmond, 
there  was  a  rush  which  packed  the  street,  and  a  shout 
of  welcome  that  rang  through  the  city. 

On  the  day  of  LEE'S  surrender  he  returned  to  Wash 
ington,  and  the  next  evening  he  addressed  the  vast  mul- 
titude  assembled  before  the  Executive  Mansion.  In  a 
speech  characterized  by  two  qualities  so  peculiar  to  him 
self ;  turning  over  to  Congress  the  settlement  of  all  diffi 
culties  connected  with  the  representation  of  the  revolted 
States,  and  expressing  his  desire  that  some  participation 
in  government,  through  right  of  suffrage,  might  be  ac 
corded  to  that  vast  Colored  population,  who  had  so  re 
cently  come  out  from  the  house  of  bondage  : — but,  above 
all,  without  a  trace  of  bitterness  or  resentment  towards 
the  late  enemies  of  the  Republic,  he  expressed  an 
anxious  wish  that  those  States  should  be  restored  to  all 
the  functions  of  self-government,  and  equal  power  in  the 
Union,  at  the  earliest  moment  that  might  be  consistent 
with  the  integrity,  safety,  and  tranquillity  of  the  nation. 

III. 

The  next  day,  April  12,  the  telegraph  flashed  through 
the  country  an  order  from  the  War  Department,  to  put 
a  stop  to  all  drafting  and  recruiting  for  our  armies,  the 


488  LINCOLN'S  ASSASSINATION. 

purchase  of  arms,  munitions,  and  provisions  of  war,  the 
reduction  in  number  of  Generals  and  Staff  officers,  and 
the  instant  removal  of  all  military  restrictions  on  com 
merce  and  trade. 

It  happened  to  be  just  four  years  after  the  surrender 
of  Fort  Sumter  by  Major  ANDERSON,  and  a  crowd  of 
loyal  citizens  had  sailed  down  to  Charleston,  to  raise 
over  the  ruins  of  that  historic  fortress,  the  very  flag 
which  ANDERSON  had  borne  away  with  him  when  he  was 
driven  in  helplessness  from  his  post. 

All  through  the  country  it  was  a  gala  day.  Peace  had 
come,  with  victory.  The  President  had  passed  some 
hours  with  his  Cabinet,  to  listen  to  a  report  from  Gen. 
GRANT,  who  had  just  arrived  from  Appomattox,  and  it 
was  proposed  that  the  party  should  seek  some  relaxation 
from  the  labors  and  excitements  of  the  day,  by  attending 
the  theatre.  Mr.  GREELEY  gives  the  following  simple 
account : 

At  8  P.M.,  the  President  and  his  wife,  with  two  others,  rode  to  the 
theatre,  and  were  ushered  into  the  private  box  previously  secured  by 
him  ;  where,  at  10^  P.M.,  while  all  were  intent  on  the  play,  an  actor  of 
Baltimore  birth, — John  Wilkes  Booth  by  name,  son  of  the  more  emi 
nent  English-born  tragedian,  Junius  Brutus  Booth, — availing  himself  of 
that  freedom  usually  accorded  at  theatres  to  actors,  entered  at  the  front 
door,  stood  for  a  few  moments,  after  presenting  a  card  to  the  Presi 
dent's  messenger,  in  the  passage-way  behind  the  dress-circle,  surveying 
the  spectacle  before  him  ;  then  entered  the  vestibule  of  the  President's 
private  box,  shut  the  door  behind  him,  fastened  it  from  the  inside  by 
placing  a  short  plank  (previously  provided)  against  it,  with  its  foot 
against  the  opposite  wall,  and  then,  holding  a  pistol  and  a  dagger  in 
either  hand,  stepped  through  the  inner  door  into  the  box  just  behind 
the  President,  who  was  leaning  forward,  with  his  eyes  fixed  on  the 
stage,  and  fired  his  pistol,  while  holding  it  close  to  the  back  of  the 
President's  head,  piercing  his  skull  behind  the  left  ear,  and  lodging  the 
ball,  after  traversing  the  brain,  just  behind  the  right  eye.  Mr.  Lincoln's 
h-j-ul  fell  slightly  forward,  his  eyes  closed,  but  he  uttered  no  word  or  cry  ; 


SUMNER'S  EULOGY  OF  LINCOLN.  489 

and  though  life  was  not  extinct  for  nine  hours  thereafter,  he  gave, 
thenceforth  to  his  death  in  a  neighboring  house,  at  7:  22  next  morning, 
no  sign  of  intelligence  ;  and  it  is  probable  that  he  never  on  earth  knew 
that  he  had  been  shot,  or  was  conscious  even  of  suffering,  much  less  of 
malice  and  murder. 

A  merciful  heaven,  that  knew  his  work  was  done,  now 
flung  open  its  doors  to  receive  the  Savior  of  the  Union, 
and  the  Deliverer  of  the  African  race. 

From  no  lips  could  the  eulogy  of  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 
fall  so  gracefully,  as  from  CHARLES  SUMNER'S  : 

In  the  universe  of  God  there  are  no  accidents.  From  the  fall  of  a 
sparrow  to  the  fall  of  an  empire,  or  the  sweep  of  a  planet,  all  is  ac 
cording  to  Divine  Providence,  whose  laws  are  everlasting.  It  was  no 
accident  which  gave  to  his  country  the  patriot  whom  we  now  honor. 
It  was  no  accident  which  snatched  this  patriot  so  suddenly  and  so 
cruelly  from  his  sublime  duties.  The  Lord  giveth  and  the  Lord  taketh 
away ;  blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord. 

IV. 

The  following  condensed  summary  of  Anti-Slavery 
measures  in  Congress,  which  Vice-President  WILSON 
gives  in  the  close  of  his  work  on  that  subject,  is  here 
quoted,  to  convey  to  the  reader  more  distinctly,  their 
scope  and  magnitude  : 

When  the  Rebellion  culminated  in  active  hostilities,  it  was  seen  that 
thousands  of  slaves  were  used  for  military  purposes  by  the  rebel  forces. 
To  weaken  the  forces  of  the  Rebellion,  the  37th  Congress  decreed  that 
such  slaves  should  be  forever  free. 

As  the  Union  armies  advanced  into  the  Rebel  States,  slaves,  inspired 
by  the  hope  of  personal  freedom,  flocked  to  their  encampments,  claim 
ing  protection  against  Rebel  masters,  and  offering  to  work  or  fight  for 
the  flag  whose  stars  for  the  first  time  gleamed  upon  their  vision  with  the 
radiance  of  liberty.  Rebel  masters  and  Rebels  sympathizing  with  mas 
ters  sought  the  encampments  of  the  loyal  forces,  demanding  the  sur 
render  of  the  escaped  fugitives ;  and  they  were  often  delivered  up  by 


490  ANTI  SLAVERY   MEASURES   OF   CONGRESS. 

officers  of  the  army.  To  weaken  the  power  of  the  insurgents,  to 
strengthen  the  loyal  forces,  and  assert  the  claims  of  humanity,  the  37th 
Congress  enacted  an  article  of  war,  dismissing  from  the  service  officers 
guilty  of  surrendering  these  fugitives. 

Three  thousand  persons  were  held  as  slaves  in  the  District  of  Colum 
bia,  over  which  the  nation  exercised  exclusive  jurisdiction:  the  37th 
Congress  made  these  three  thousand  bondmen  freemen,  and  made 
slave- holding  in  the  capital  of  the  nation  for  evermore  impossible. 

Laws  and  ordinances  existed  in  the  national  capital,  that  pressed  with 
merciless  rigor  upon  the  Colored  people:  the  37th  Congress  enacted 
that  Colored  persons  should  be  tried  for  the  same  offences,  in  the  same 
manner,  and  be  subject  to  the  same  punishments,  as  white  persons ; 
thus  abrogating  the  "  Black  Code." 

Colored  persons  in  the  capital  of  this  Christian  nation  were  denied 
the  right  to  testify  in  the  judicial  tribunals,  thus  placing  their  property, 
their  liberties,  and  their  lives,  in  the  power  of  unjust  and  wicked  men  : 
the  37th  Congress  enacted  that  persons  should  not  be  excluded  as  wit 
nesses  in  the  courts  of  the  District,  on  account  of  color. 

In  the  capital  of  the  nation,  Colored  persons  were  taxed  to  support 
schools,  from  which  their  own  children  were  excluded ;  and  no  public 
schools  were  provided  for  the  instruction  of  more  than  four  thousand 
youth  :  the  38th  Congress  provided  by  law  that  public  schools  should 
be  established  for  Colored  children,  and  that  the  same  rate  of  appropri 
ations  for  Colored  schools  should  be  made,  as  are  made  for  the  educa 
tion  of  white  children. 

The  railways  chartered  by  Congress  excluded  from  their  cars  Colored 
persons  without  the  authority  of  law  :  Congress  enacted  that  there  should 
be  no  exclusion  from  any  car,  on  account  of  color. 

V. 

Into  the  Territories  of  the  United  States, — one-third  of  the  surface 
of  the  country, — the  slave-holding  class  claimed  the  right  to  take  and 
hold  their  slaves,  under  the  protection  of  the  law:  the  37th  Congress 
prohibited  slavery  for  ever  in  all  the  existing  territory,  and  in  all  terri 
tory  which  may  hereafter  be  acquired ;  thus  stamping  freedom  for  all, 
for  ever,  upon  the  public  domain. 

As  the  war  progressed,  it  became  more  clearly  apparent  that  the 
Rebels  hoped  to  win  the  Border  Slave  States  ;  that  Rebel  sympathi/en- 
in  those  States  hoped  to  join  the  Rebel  States ;  and  that  emancipation 


WHAT   SLAVERY   HAD   BEEN.  49.1 

in  loyal  States  would  bring  repose  to  them,  and  weaken  the  power 
of  the  Rebellion  :  the  37th  Congress,  on  the  recommendation  of  the 
President,  by  the  passage  of  a  joint  resolution,  pledged  the  faith  of  the 
nation  to  aid  loyal  States  to  emancipate  the  slaves  therein. 

The  hoe  and  spade  of  the  Rebel  slave  were  hardly  less  potent  for 
the  Rebellion  than  the  rifle  and  bayonet  of  the  Rebel  soldier.  Slaves 
sowed  and  reaped  for  the  Rebels,  enabling  the  Rebel  leaders  to  fill  the 
wasting  ranks  of  their  armies,  and  feed  them.  To  weaken  the  military 
forces  and  the  power  of  the  Rebellion,  the  37th  Congress  decreed  that 
all  slaves  of  persons  giving  aid  and  comfort  to  the  Rebellion,  escaping 
from  such  persons,  and  taking  refuge  within  the  lines  of  the  army  ;  all 
slaves  captured  from  such  persons,  or  deserted  by  them  ;  all  slaves  of 
such  persons,  being  within  any  place  occupied  by  Rebel  forces, 
and  afterwards  occupied  by  the  forces  of  the  United  States, — shall  be 
captives  of  war,  and  shall  be  forever  free  of  their  servitude,  and  not 
again  held  as  slaves. 

The  provisions  of  the  Fugitive-slave  Act  permitted  disloyal  masters 
to  claim,  and  they  did  claim,  the  return  of  their  fugitive  bondmen  : 
the  37th  Congress  enacted  that  no  fugitive  should  be  surrendered  un 
til  the  claimant  made  oath  that  he  had  not  given  aid  and  comfort  to 
the  Rebellion. 

The  progress  of  the  Rebellion  demonstrated  its  power,  and  the  needs 
of  the  imperilled  nation.  To  strengthen  the  physical  forces  of  the 
United  States',  the  37th  Congress  authorized  the  President  to  receive 
into  the  military  service  persons  of  African  descent ;  and  every  such 
person  mustered  into  the  service,  his  mother,  his  wife,  and  children, 
owing  service  or  labor  to  any  person  who  should  give  aid  and  comfort 
to  the  Rebellion,  was  made  forever  free. 


VI. 


The  African  slave-trade  had  been  carried  on  by  slave-pirates  under 
the  protection  of  the  flag  of  the  United  States.  To  extirpate  from  the 
seas  that  inhuman  traffic,  and  to  vindicate  the  sullied  honor  of  the 
nation,  the  Administration  early  entered  into  treaty  stipulations  with 
the  British  Government  for  the  mutual  right  of  search  within  certain 
limits  ;  and  the  37th  Congress  hastened  to  enact  the  appropriate  legis 
lation  to  carry  the  treaty  into  effect. 

The  slave-holding  class,  in  the  pride  of  power,  persistently  refused 


492  HOW   SLAVERY   DIED. 

to  recognize  the  independence  of  Hayti  and  Liberia  ;  thus  dealing 
unjustly  towards  those  nations,  to  the  detriment  of  the  commercial 
interests  of  the  country  :  the  37th  Congress  recognized  the  inde 
pendence  of  those  republics  by  authorizing  the  President  to  establish 
diplomatic  relations  with  them. 

By  the  provisions  of  law,  White  male  citizens  alone  were  enrolled  in 
the  militia.  In  the  Amendment  to  the  acts  for  calling  out  the  militia, 
the  37th  Congress  provided  for  the  enrolment  and  drafting  of  citizens, 
without  regard  to  color ;  and,  by  the  Enrolment  Act,  Colored  persons, 
free  or  slave,  are  enrolled  and  drafted  the  same  as  White  men.  The 
38th  Congress  enacted  that  Colored  soldiers  shall  have  the  same  pay, 
clothing,  and  rations,  and  be  placed  in  all  respects  upon  the  same  foot 
ing,  as  White  soldiers.  To  encourage  enlistments,  and  to  aid  eman 
cipation,  the  38th  Congress  decreed  that  every  slave  mustered  into  the 
military  service  shall  be  free  forever  ;  thus  enabling  every  slave  fit  for 
military  service  to  secure  personal  freedom. 

By  the  provisions  of  the  fugitive-slave  acts,  slave  hunters  could 
hunt  their  absconding  bondmen,  require  the  people  to  aid  in  their  recap 
ture,  and  have  them  returned  at  the  expense  of  the  nation.  The  38th 
Congress  erased  all  fugitive-slave  acts  from  the  statutes  of  the 
Republic. 

The  law  of  1807  legalized  the  coastwise  slave-trade  :  the  38th  Con 
gress  repealed  that  act,  and  made  the  trade  illegal. 

The  courts  of  the  United  States  receive  such  testimony  as  is  permit 
ted  in  the  States  where  the  courts  are  holden.  Several  of  the  States 
exclude  the  testimony  of  Colored  persons.  The  38th  Congress  made 
it  legal  for  Colored  persons  to  testify  in  all  the  courts  of  the  United 
States. 

Different  views  are  entertained  by  public  men  relative  to  the  re 
construction  of  the  governments  of  the  seceded  States,  and  the  validity 
of  the  President's  Proclamation  of  Emancipation.  The  38th  Congress 
passed  a  bill  providing  for  the  reconstruction  of  the  governments  of  the 
Rebel  States,  and  for  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  of  those  States ; 
but  it  did  not  receive  the  approval  of  the  President. 

Colored  persons  were  not  permitted  to  carry  the  United  States  mails  : 
the  38th  Congress  repeated  the  prohibitory  legislation,  and  made  it 
lawful  for  persons  of  Color  to  carry  the  mails. 

Wives  and  children  of  Colored  persons  in  the  military  and  naval 
service  of  the  United  States  were  often  held  as  slaves  ;  and,  while 
husbands  and  fathers  were  absent  fighting  the  battles  of  the  country, 


FINAL   EXTINCTION   OF   SLAVERY.  493 

these  wives  and  children  were  sometimes  removed  and  sold,  and  often 
treated  with  cruelty :  the  38th  Congress  made  free  the  wives  and  children 
of  all  persons  engaged  in  the  military  or  naval  service  of  the  country. 

VII. 

The  disorganization  of  the  slave  system,  and  the  exigencies  of  civil 
war,  have  thrown  thousands  of  freedmen  upon  the  charity  of  the  nation  : 
to  relieve  their  immediate  needs,  and  to  aid  them  through  the  transition 
period,  the  38th  Congress  established  a  Bureau  of  Freedmen. 

The  prohibition  of  slavery  in  the  Territories,  its  abolition  in  the  Dis 
trict  of  Columbia,  the  freedom  of  Colored  soldiers,  their  wives  and 
children,  emancipation  in  Maryland,  West  Virginia,  and  Missouri,  and 
by  the  reorganized  State  authorities  of  Virginia,  Tennessee,  and  Louisi 
ana,  and  the  President's  Emancipation  Proclamation,  disorganized 
the  slave  system,  and  practically  left  few  persons  in  bondage ;  but 
slavery  still  continued  in  Delaware  and  Kentucky,  and  the  slave  codes 
remain  unrepealed  in  the  Rebel  States.  To  annihilate  the  slave  sys 
tem,  its  codes  and  usages  ;  to  make  slavery  impossible,  and  freedom 
universal — the  38th  Congress  submitted  to  the  people  the  anti-slavery 
amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  The  adoption 
of  that  crowning  measure  assures  freedom  to  all. 

VIII. 

Such  are  the  "ANTI-SLAVERY  MEASURES"  of  the  Thirty-seventh  and 
Thirty-eighth  Congresses  during  the  past  four  crowded  years.  Seldom 
in  the  history  of  nations  is  it  given  to  any  body  of  legislators  or  law 
givers  to  enact  or  institute  a  series  of  measures  so  vast  in  their  scope, 
so  comprehensive  in  their  character,  so  patriotic,  just,  and  humane. 

But,  while  the  Thirty-seventh  and  Thirty-eighth  Congresses  were  en 
acting  this  anti-slavery  legislation,  other  agencies  were  working  to  the 
consummation  of  the  same  end — the  complete  and  final  abolition  of 
slavery.  The  President  proclaims  three  and  a  half  millions  of  bond 
men  in  the  Rebel  States  henceforward  and  forever  free,  Maryland,  Vir 
ginia,  and  Missouri  adopt  immediate  and  unconditional  emancipation. 
The  partially  reorganized  Rebel  States  of  Virginia  and  Tennessee, 
Arkansas  and  Louisiana,  accept  and  adopt  the  unrestricted  abolition  of 
slavery.  Illinois  and  other  States  hasten  to  blot  from  their  Statute- 


494  AVAILABILITY   A   FATAL   POLICY. 

books  their  dishonoring  Black  codes.  The  Attorney-General  officially 
pronounces  the  Negro  a  citizen  of  the  United  States.  The  Negro,  who 
had  no  status  in  the  Supreme  Court,  is  admitted  by  the  Chief-Justice 
to  practice  as  an  Attorney  before  that  august  tribunal.  Christian  men 
and  women  follow  the  loyal  armies  with  the  agencies  of  mental  and 
moral  instruction  to  fit  and  prepare  the  enfranchised  freedmen  for  the 
duties  of  the  higher  condition  of  life  now  opening  before,  them. 


IX. 


The  death  of  LINCOLN  carried  ANDREW  JOHNSON  to 
the  Presidential  office.  The  result  proved  how  foolish, 
if  not  how  fatal,  is  the  policy  of  political  parties  who  are 
guided  more  by  present  availability  than  by  profound 
sagacity,  or  high  principle,  in  the  choice  of  candidates. 
This  had  proved  true  on  two  former  occasions  with  the 
Whig  party.  In  1840  they  had  nominated  for  the  Presi 
dency  a  most  respectable,  pure,  and  patriotic  man,  who 
was  so  far  in  the  decline  of  life  and  vigor,  that  his  little 
remaining  strength  soon  gave  way  to  the  worry  and 
pressure  of  the  occasion  ;  and  for  the  Vice-Presidency, 
a  man  who  was  conspicuously  destitute  of  every  quali 
fication  necessary  for  the  station  he  was  called  upon  to 
fill.  His  administration  ended  in  lamentable  failure  for 
himself,  and  in  humiliation  to  his  party.  The  same 
policy  prevailed  in  the  nomination  of  Gen.  TAYLOR,  who, 
as  a  blunt  and  patriotic  old  soldier,  had  done  his  duty 
well,  but  who  had  not  one  conceivable  quality  to  insure 
a  successful  administration.  The  party  were  no  more 
successful,  although  the  country  was  more  fortunate, 
in  having  its  affairs  fall  into  the  hands  of  a  providential 
successor.  Mr.  FILLMORE  had  the  integrity  and  sense 
to  keep  faith  with  his  party,  and  surround  himself  by 
able  and  illustrious  advisers.  But  his  ambition,  as  well 


ANDREW  JOHNSON   BECOMES   PRESIDENT.  495 

as  their  own,  rose  no  higher  than  stemming,  as  well  as 
they  could,  the  rising  tide  which  was  to  sweep  the  past 
away,  banishing  the  supremacy  of  the  slave-power  from 
the  control  of  national  affairs,  and  introducing  a  new 
period  of  national  activity  for  the  more  liberal  spirit  of 
the  advancing  age. 

X. 

But,  of  all  the  misfortunes  which  attended  that  party, 
and  impaired  its  administration  of  affairs,  the  greatest  was 
in  following  out  the  same  policy,  for  the  third  time.  Of 
the  men  who  nominated  ANDREW  JOHNSON  for  the  Vice- 
Presidency,  few  ever  thought  of  the  contingency  of  Mr. 
LINCOLN'S  death.  But  there  must  have  been  members 
enough  in  the  Convention  fully  aware  of  the  entire  unfit- 
ness  of  Mr.  JOHNSON  for  the  execution  of  any  high 
trust  whatever.  Born  and  brought  up  in  a  community 
where  few  of  the  amenities  of  civilized  life  were  known  ; 
with  poor  chances  for  a  knowledge  of  public  affairs,  and 
fewer  still  for  intellectual  culture  ;  coarse-grained  by  na 
ture,  but  gigantic  in  build  and  well  calculated  to  "  rough 
it,"  in  rude  communities,  ANDREW  JOHNSON  fought  his 
way  by  sheer  force  into  public  observation.  And  although 
not  destitute  of  a  certain  degree  of  native  sturdiness  of 
character,  and  a  careless  openness  of  manner  which  was 
easily  mistaken  by  the  vulgar  for  magnanimity  and 
greatness  ;  and  having,  neither  by  inheritance  nor  ac 
quisition,  any  interest  in  common  with  the  better  classes 
of  the  South,  his  restless  nature  urged  him  into  the  first 
collisions  of  political  parties.  Happening  to  take  the 
right  side,  at  the  right  moment,  he  was  swept  on  by  the 
current  of  fortune,  till  its  last  crowning  freak  landed  him 


496  ANDREW  JOHNSON'S  CHARACTER. 

in  the  Presidential  chair.  But  no  native  endowment,  or 
habit  of  mind,  had  fitted  him  for  the  new  and  exalted 
sphere.  Incapable  either  of  comprehending  the  difficul 
ties  of  his  position,  of  choosing  discreet  private  advisers, 
or  even  of  listening  to  their  counsels  when  once  chosen, 
the  bull-headed  obstinacy  of  his  character  found  a  most 
welcome  field  for  rioting  in  the  slouo-h  of  his  ignorance 

O  O  <!5 

and  passion. 

Familiar  only  with  the  stereotype  formulas  of  tra 
ditional  democracy,  and  the  free  slang  of  the  West 
ern  stump,  he  was  entirely  incompetent  to  grapple  with 
any  problem  of  statesmanship,  or  hold  his  passions  iu 
subjection  long  enough  for  wise  deliberation.  He  soon 
found  himself  plunged  into  a  sea  of  difficulties.  In 
capable  of  retaining  his  old  friends,  or  of  making  new 
ones  ;  possessing  no  qualities  which  bound  men  to  him 
by  any  stronger  ties  than  office  ;  conscious  of  a  total  lack 
of  the  dignity  which  so  high  an  office  confers ;  and 
knowing  that  his  inferiority  became  the  more  conspicuous 
in  contrast  with  the  loftiness  of  his  position  ;  rash  and 
hasty  in  judgment  ;  too  ignorant  to  know  how,  and  too 
obstinate  to  find  out  when  to  yield  or  retreat  ;  he  went 
through  his  Presidential  term  with  just  about  as  much 
sagacity  and  dignity  as  the  proverbial  bull  goes  through  a 
china-shop.  What  little  there  was  of  reputation  for  him 
to  lose  when  he  went  into  office,  he  managed  to  get  rid 
of  pretty  quick ;  and  the  poor  man  must  at  last  have  felt 
about  as  much  relieved  in  getting  rid  of  his  party  and 
his  office,  as  they  felt  in  getting  rid  of  him. 

But  neither  his  obstinacy  nor  his  ignorance  worked  any 
great  mischief.  The  national  sentiment  was  well  re- 

O 

presented  in  both  Houses  of  Congress,  and  gradually  the 
dashing  stream  of  events  was  washing  away  the  slime  of 


SENATE    CHAMBER — SOKNK 


THE   AUGEAN   STABLES   CLEANSED.  497 

Slavery  from  the  nation.  For  that  slime  had  been 
gathering  as  gangrene  gathers  over  old  sores,  and  foul 
matter  concretes  in  dark,  dank  places,  away  from  the 
sunshine  and  pure  air.  The  long-obstructed  flood 
gates  had  broken  way,  and  the  rushing  waters  had 
cleansed  the  Augean  stable. 

Mr.  JOHNSON'S  Cabinet  was  made  up  chiefly  of  good 
and  able  men  ;  and  as  he  did  not  know  enough  about 
Foreign  Affairs,  even  to  interfere  with  the  Depart 
ment  of  State,  besides  being  altogether  too  weak  a 
man  to  cope  with  the  gigantic  force  of  STANTON,  wis 
dom  and  vigor  characterized  those  departments  ;  while 
Congress  was  powerful  enough  to  carry  through  a  whole 
series  of  beneficent  measures  against  his  unavailing  op 
position.  One  by  one  the  cardinal  Amendments  to  the 
Constitution  had  passed  both  Houses,  and  been  reenacted 
over  his  vetoes.  Every  necessary  restraint  was  imposed 
on  his  tendency  to  do  mischief;  he  was,  by  special  enact 
ments,  stripped  of  much  of  his  executive  power  ;  so  that 
he  went  hamstrung  through  his  term.  His  writhings 
and  bellowings,  as  these  withes  were  bound  around  him, 
were  characteristic  of  such  demonstrations  on  the  part 
of  the  lower  animals,  under  similar  circumstances.  It 
was  a  public  relief  when  he  made  way  for  the  great 
soldier  who  became  his  successor,  and  in  whom  the 
nation  was  justified  in  feeling  absolutely  safe  ;  for  they 
could  repose  on  his  supreme  knowledge  of  the  military 
condition  of  the  country,  and  how  the  integrity  and 
power  of  the  Union  had  been  vindicated  ;  while  from  no 
quarter,  at  the  time,  nor  do  we  believe,  since,  was 
breathed  a  doubt  that  the  patriotism  of  the  citizen  was 
not  as  much  above  suspicion,  as  his  valor  had  been 
above  praise. 
32 


498          THE  THREE  GREAT  AMENDMENTS. 


XI. 


The  THIRTEENTH  AMENDMENT  had  abolished  Slavery. 
The  Fourteenth  had  secured  the  rights  of  citizenship  to 
all  persons  born  or  naturalized  in  the  United  States, 
and  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  thereof,  disabling  a  cer- 
tian  class  of  chief  officers  in  the  late  Rebellion  ;  declar 
ing  the  validity  of  the  national  debt,  and  forbidding 
the  payment  of  the  debt  of  the  so-called  Confederacy. 
The  FIFTEENTH  AMENDMENT  secured  the  right  of  suf 
frage  to  all  the  citizens  of  the  Republic  without  regard  to 
race,  color,  or  previous  condition,  the  joint  resolution  for 
which  passed  both  Houses  on  the  26th  of  February, 
1869;  while,  about  the  same  time,  a  law  was  enacted,  the 
chief  provision  of  which  was  as  follows  :  "  The  faith  of 
the  United  States  is  solemnly  pledged  to  the  payment 
in  coin  or  its  equivalent,  of  all  interest-bearing  obligations 
of  the  United  States,  except  in  cases  where  the  law  au 
thorizing  the  issue  of  any  such  obligation,  has  expressly 
provided  that  the  same  may  be  paid  in  lawful  money  or 
other  currency  than  gold  and  silver." 

To  each  one  of  these  cardinal  measures,  which  se 
cured  the  fruits  of  the  great  struggle,  and  established 
the  government  upon  a  basis  too  strong  to  be  questioned, 
at  least  by  the  generation  of  men  now  living,  Senator 
SUMNER  gave  his  unwearied  attention,  and  his  most 
earnest  support.  A  vast  number  of  other  measures, 
necessary  or  beneficent,  were  also  passed,  which,  by 
virtue  of  provisions  made  in  the  Amendments  them 
selves,  clothed  Congress  with  power  to  enforce  them  by 
proper  legislation  ;  in  most  of  which  Mr.  SUMNER  actively 
participated,  and  over  all  of  which  he  cast  the  illumina- 


THE  JOHNSON-CLARENDON   TREATY.  499 

tion  of  his  learning,  enforced  by  the  power  of  his   elo 
quence. 

XII. 

In  one  respect—and  perhaps  in  others — sufficient  jus 
tice  has  not  been  done  to  ANDREW  JOHNSON'S  motives, 
for  he  gave  no  evidence  of  corruption  in  office  ;  and  with 
all  his  imperfections,  he  never  displayed  any  lack  of 
patriotism.  But  we  speak  specially  in  reference  to  his 
efforts  to  terminate  our  complications  with  Great  Britain, 
by  a  final  treaty,  and  appointing  Mr.  REVERDY  JOHNSON, 
a  learned,  venerable,  and  high-minded  gentleman,  Minis 
ter  to  England  for  this  purpose.  The  prospect  seemed 
to  be  fair  that  our  perplexing  difficulties  with  England 
would  find  a  termination  ;  but  in  the  opinion  of  the  people 
of  the  country,  as  well  as  of  the  Senate,  the  envoy  made  a 
failure  in  his  efforts,  for  the  JOHNSON- CLARENDON  Treaty, 
whatever  it  may  have  meant,  was  unanimously  rejected 
by  the  Senate.  It  was  on  this  occasion  that  Mr.  SUMNER 
pronounced  that  exhaustive  argument  in  favor  of  Ameri 
can  indemnity,  the  mere  rumor  of  which  so  frightened 
that  fast-anchored  isle  from  her  propriety,  that  not  a  jour 
nal  in  the  British  Empire  dared  to  print  the  speech. 
There  were  certain  reasons  why  the  public  men  of  Great 
Britain  were  horrified  by  that  speech.  First  of  all,  Mr. 
SUMNER  was  a  great  favorite  in  England  :  he  was  re 
garded  as  our  foremost  statesman  ;  and  being  Chairman 
of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs,  a  weight  was  car 
ried  with  his  opinion  which  British  politicians  supposed 
would  be  irresistible  with  the  American  people.  No 
such  Philippic  was  supposed  possible  to  come  from  a 
man  who  enjoyed  such  great  reputation  and  popularity 
in  England.  It  was  looked  upon  as  treason  to  all  his 


500  SUMNER'S  SPEECH  ON  THE  TREATY. 

antecedents  ;  as  a  betrayal  of  all  his  English  friends  ;  as 
an  outrage  on  every  principle  of  International  law  ;  and 
as  a  gross  and  unpardonable  insult  to  the  British 
Empire. 

The  indignity  was  still  more  inflamed  by  insisting  upon 
the  payment  of  an  incredible  amount  for  indirect  claims, 
and  constructive  damages,  with  the  proposition  to  seize 
at  once  the  British  Colonies  in  America,  as  a  security 
for  the  debt  which  England  owed  for  sweeping  our  com 
merce  from  the  ocean,  prolonging  our  war,  giving  aid 
and  comfort  to  the  rebels,  and  lending  all  the  assistance 
she  could  without  open  hostilities,  to  sustain  the  falling 
cause  of  slavery,  and  trying  her  best  to  work  the  politi 
cal  ruin  of  this  country. 

That  speech  cost  Mr.  SUMNER,  for  the  time  being, 
about  every  friend  he  had  in  the  British  Empire  ;  but  there 
were  some  men  in  England  who  looked  upon  the  whole 
case  dispassionately,  and  who  did  not  hesitate,  through 
the  press,  at  the  time,  to  help  arrest  this  new  storm  of 
passion  and  hate  that  was  again  sweeping  over  the  Brit 
ish  Isles. 

XIII. 

In  speaking  of  the  duty  of  Congress  to  secure  univer 
sal  suffrage,  both  at  the  North,  as  well  as  at  the  South, 
for  all  its  citizens,  he  had  said  : 

I  submit  that  the  doing  it  in  the  loyal  States  is  only  the  just  comple 
ment  to  your  action  in  the  Rebel  States.  How  can  you  look  the  Rebel 
States  in  the  face  when  you  have  required  colored  suffrage  of  them,  and 
fail  to  require  it  in  the  other  States?  Be  just;  require  it  in  the  loyal 
States  as  you  have  now  required  it  in  the  Rebel  States.  There  is  an  un 
answerable  argument,  and  I  submit  it  on  the  question  of  order.  If  we 
are  now  privileged  to  consider  only  matters  that  are  in  aid  of  the  re 
construction  measures,  then  I  submit  that  this  bill  is  in  aid  of  those 


CIVIL   RIGHTS   SUPPLEMENT   BILL.  5<DI 

measures,  for  it  is  to  give  them  completeness  and  roundness.  Unless 
you  pass  this  bill  your  original  measure  is  imperfect ;  ay,  it  is  radically 
unjust.  I  know  it  is  said  you  have  one  title  to  legislation  over  the  Rebel 
States  which  you  have  not  over  the  loyal  States, — to  wit,  that  they  have 
been  in  rebellion  ;  but  the  great  cardinal  sources  of  power  over  the 
Rebel  States  are  identical  with  those  over  the  loyal  States.  They  are 
one  and  the  same.  There  is  the  clause  in  the  Constitution  directing  you 
to  guarantee  a  republican  form  of  government.  It  is  a  clause  which  is 
like  a  sleeping  giant  in  the  Constitution, — never  until  this  recent  war 
awakened — but  now  it  comes  forward  with  a  giant's  power.  There  is  no 
clause  in  the  Constitution  like  it.  There  is  no  clause  which  gives  to 
Congress  such  a  supreme  power  over  the  States,  as  that  clause.  There, 
as  I  have  already  said,  you  have  the  two  other  clauses.  Your  power 
under  the  Constitution  is  complete.  It  is  not  less  beneficial  than  com 
plete.  *  *  Who  then  can  hesitate  ?  Look  at  it  in  any  light  which 
you  please.  Regard  it  as  the  completion  of  these  reconstruction  meas 
ures  ;  regard  it  as  a  constitutional  enactment ;  regard  it  as  a  measure 
of  expediency  in  order  to  secure  those  results  which  we  all  desire  at  the 
approaching  elections;  and  who  can  hesitate?  You  have  had  no  bill 
before  you  for  a  long  time,  the  passage  of  which  would  be  of  more  prac 
tical  advantage  than  this. 

XIV. 

On  the  1 2th  of  May,  1870,  Mr.  SUMNER  introduced 
his  Civil  Rights  Supplement ;  and  in  doing  so,  said  that 
the  passage  of  the  Bill  would  render  further  legislation 
on  the  subject  unnecessary.  It  declares  all  citizens  of 
the  United  States,  without  distinction  of  race  and  color, 
entitled  to  equal  and  impartial  enjoyment  of  accommoda 
tion,  advantage,  facility  or  privilege  afforded  by  common 
carriers  on  railroads,  steamboats,  or  other  public  convey 
ance  ;  in  hotels,  licensed  theatres  and  other  houses  of 
public  entertainment ;  common  schools  and  other  insti 
tutions  of  learning  authorized  by  law  ;  church  institutions, 
incorporated  either  by  National  or  State  authority  ;  also 
on  juries  in  all  courts,  both  National  and  State.  It  sub- 


5O2        JUSTICE   TO   THE    COLORED    RACE    EVERYWHERE. 

jects  any  one  violating,  or  inciting  to  violation  of  its  pro 
visions,  to  payment  of  $500  to  the  person  aggrieved, 
and  imprisonment,  and  a  further  fine  of  from  $500  to 
$1,000.  When  the  violation  is  committed  by  a  corpora 
tion,  the  penalty  to  be  forfeiture  of  charter.  He  intro 
duced  substantially  the  same  Bill  on  the  2Oth  of  January, 
1871, — the  one  which  he  commended  so  earnestly  to  his 
friend  Judge  Hoar,  with  almost  his  dying  breath. 

XV. 

In  the  debate  on  the  Amnesty  Bill, — December  2Oth, 
1871, — he  used  the  following  language  on  justice  to  the 
Colored  race  everywhere : 

We  have  all  heard  of  the  old  saying,  "  Let  us  be  just  before  we  are 
generous."  I  do  not  like  to  be  against  anything  that  may  seem  to  be 
generous ;  but  I  do  insist  always  upon  justice  ;  and  now  that  it  is  pro 
posed  to  be  generous  to  those  who  were  engaged  in  the  rebellion,  I  in 
sist  upon  justice  to  the  Colored  race  everywhere  throughout  this  land  ; 
and  in  that  spirit  I  shall  ask  the  Senate  to  adopt  as  an  amendment  in 
the  form  of  additional  sections,  what  is  already  known  in  this  Chamber 
as  the  Supplementary  Civil  Rights  Bill.  *  *  I  insist  that  by  the  law 
of  the  land  all  persons,  without  distinction  of  color,  shall  be  equal  be 
fore  the  law.  Show  me,  therefore,  a  legal  institution,  anything  created 
or  regulated  by  law,  and  I  show  you  what  must  be  opened  equally  to 
all  without  distinction  of  color.  Notoriously,  the  hotel  is  a  legal  insti 
tution  originally  established  by  the  common  law,  subject  to  minute 
provisions  and  regulations  ;  notoriously,  public  conveyances  are  in  the 
nature  of  common  carriers,  subject  to  a  law  of  their  own  ;  notoriously, 
schools  are  public  institutions,  created  and  maintained  by  law  ;  and 
now  I  simply  insist  that  in  the  enjoyment  of  those  institutions,  there 
shall  be  no  exclusion  on  account  of  color.  *  *  I  hope  there  will  be 
no  question  about  adopting  this  amendment.  But  I  will  ask  once  more 
my  friends  over  the  way,  who  insist  upon  amnesty,  to  unite  with  me  now 
in  justice  to  the  Colored  race.  Let  us  do  this  work  all  at  once.  I  wish 
to  have  the  pleasure  of  voting  for  this  bill.  I  wish  to  unite  with  tlv.j 
Senator  from  Mississippi  (Mr.  Alcorn)  in  the  generosity  that  he  pro- 


Till-:    PRESIDENCY    AS   A   TRUST.  503 

poses  ;  but  I  do  implore  him  to  unite  with  me  in  justice  to  his  own  con 
stituents.  Treat  the  two  together  ;  put  them  both  in  the  same  bill  ; 
pass  them  by  a  two-thirds  vote,  and  let  the  country  see  how  grandly 
unanimous  we  are  in  an  act  which  is  at  once  generous  and  just,  full  of 
generosity,  the  noblest  generosity,  the  grandest  magnanimity  in  human 
history,  and  full,  also,  of  simple  justice. 

XVI. 

In  the  United  States  Senate,  May  31,  1872,  in  speak 
ing  of  the  Presidency  as  a  trust,  and  the  Republicans  as 
being  a  personal  party,  he  used  this  language,  which 
alienated  him  pretty  effectually  from  that  great  organiza 
tion  : 

To  the  Republican  party,  devoted  to  ideas  and  principles,  I  turn  now 
with  more  than  ordinary  solicitude.  Not  willingly  can  I  see  it  sacrificed. 
Not  without  earnest  effort  against  the  betrayal,  can  I  suffer  its  ideas  and 
principles  to  be  lost  in  the  personal  pretensions  of  one  man.  Both  the 
old  parties  are  in  a  crisis,  with  this  difference  between  the  two :  The 
Democracy  is  dissolving  ;  the  Republican  party  is  being  absorbed.  The 
Democracy  is  falling  apart,  thus  losing  its  vital  unity ;  the  Republican 
party  is  submitting  to  a  personal  influence,  thus  visibly  losing  its  vital 
character.  The  Democracy  is  ceasing  to  exist.  The  Republican  party 
is  losing  its  identity.  Let  the  process  be  completed,  and  it  will  be  no 
longer  that  Republican  party  which  I  helped  to  found  and  always  served, 
but  only  a  personal  party ;  while,  instead  of  those  ideas  and  principles 
which  we  have  been  so  proud  to  uphold,  will  be  Presidential  pretensions ; 
and  instead  of  Republicanism  there  will  be  nothing  but  Grantism. 
Political  parties  are  losing  their  sway.  Higher  than  party  are  country 
and  the  duty  to  save  it  from  Caesar.  The  caucus  is  at  last  understood 
as  a  political  engine,  moved  by  wire-pullers ;  and  it  becomes  more  in 
supportable  in  proportion  as  directed  to  personal  ends ;  nor  is  its  cha 
racter  changed  when  called  a  National  Convention.  Here,  too,  are 
wire-pullers ;  and  when  the  great  Office-holder  and  the  great  Office- 
seeker  are  one  and  the  same,  it  is  easy  to  see  how  naturally  the  engine 
responds  to  the  central  touch.  A  political  convention  is  an  agency  and 
a  convenience ;  but  never  a  law,  least  of  all  a  despotism ;  and  when  it 
seeks  to  impose  a  candidate  whose  name  is  a  synonym  of  pretensions 


504          SUMNER'S  LETTER  TO  COLORED  CITIZENS. 

unrepublican  in  character,  and  hostile  to  good  government,  it  will  be 
for  earnest  Republicans  to  consider  well  how  clearly  party  is  subordi 
nate  to  country.  Such  a  nomination  can  have  no  just  obligation. 


XVII. 

In  a  letter  to  Colored  citizens,  on  Harmony  between 
the  Races,  he  wrote: 

Thus  far,  in  constant  efforts  for  the  Colored  Race,  I  have  sincerely 
sought  the  good  of  all ;  which  I  was  convinced  would  be  best  obtained 
in  fulfilling  the  promises  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  making 
all  equal  in  rights.  The  spirit  in  which  I  acted  appears  in  an  early 
speech,  when  I  said  :  "  Nothing  in  hate,  nothing  in  vengeance."  Never 
have  I  asked  for  punishment.  Most  anxiously  I  have  looked  for  the 
time,  which  seems  now  at  hand,  when  there  shall  be  reconciliation  ;  not 
only  between  the  North  and  South,  but  between  the  two  races  ;  so  that 
the  two  races  and  the  two  sections  may  be  lifted  from  the  ruts  and 
grooves  in  which  they  are  now  fastened  ;  and,  instead  of  irritating  antag 
onism  without  end,  there  shall  be  sympathetic  cooperation.  The  ex 
isting  differences  ought  to  be  ended.  There  is  a  time  for  all  things,  and 
we  are  admonished  by  a  widespread  popular  uprising  bursting  the  bonds 
of  party,  that  the  time  has  come  for  estrangement  to  cease  between 
people  who  by  the  ordinance  of  God  must  live  together.  Gladly  do  I 
welcome  these  happy  signs  ;  nor  can  I  observe  without  regret  the  colored 
people  in  organized  masses  resisting  the  friendly  overtures,  even  to  the 
extent  of  intimidating  those  who  are  the  other  way.  It  is  for  them  to 
consider  carefully  whether  they  should  not  take  advantage  of  the  unex 
pected  opening,  and  recognize  the  bail  bond  given  at  Baltimore  as  the 
assurance  of  peace,  holding  the  parties  to  the  full  performance  of  its 
conditions,  provided  always  that  their  rights  are  fixed.  I  am  sure  it 
cannot  be  best  for  the  colored  people  to  band  together  in  a  hostile 
camp,  provoking  antagonism  and  keeping  alive  the  separation  of  races. 
Above  all  there  must  be  no  intimidation,  but  every  voter  must  act  freely, 
without  constraint  from  league  or  lodge.  Much  better  will  it  be  when 
two  political  parties  compete  for  your  vote,  each  anxious  for  your 
support.  Only  then  will  that  citizenship  by  which  you  are  entitled  to 
the  equal  rights  of  all,  have  its  full  fruits.  Only  then  will  there  be  that 
hurmony  which  is  essential  to  a  true  civilization. 


THE   WONDERFUL    YEAR    l8/O.  505 

XVIII. 

The  year  1870  witnessed  a  series  of  astounding  con 
vulsions  in  Europe,  the  record  of  which,  even  while  they 
were  taking  place,  seemed  to  transcend  in  magnitude 
any  preceding  revolutions,  partaking  more  of  the 
dreams  of  romance,  than  the  sober  transactions  of  his 
tory.  The  resistless  march  of  the  great  German  armies 
into  the  heart  of  France  ;  the  capture,  in  rapid  succes 
sion  of  her  fortified  cities  and  army  corps  ;  the  overthrow 
of  the  throne  of  NAPOLEON  III.  and  the  imprisonment  of 
its  Emperor  ;  the  final  occupation  of  Rome  by  the  national 
Government  of  Italy,  and  the  annihilation  at  last  of  the 
Temporal  sovereignty  of  the  Pope, — all  crowded  to 
gether  within  the  space  of  a  few  months,  read,  even  at 
thir.  short  distance  of  time,  like  a  fairy  tale. 

In  the  meantime,  the  Federal  Government  of  the 
United  States  was  becoming  more  and  more  consoli 
dated.  All  the  States  were  restored  to  their  old  places 
in  the  Union,  under  Constitutions  made  by  themselves, 
and  approved  by  Congress  ;  and  once  more  their  civil 
powers  were  administered  by  citizens  of  their  own  choice. 
The  giant  form  of  the  Rebellion  was  fast  moving  into 
the  dim  past,  and  a  new  vista  of  progress  and  splendor 
was  opening  to  the  advancing  Republic.  Early  in  the 
year,  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  to  the  Constitution  had 
been  ratified  by  the  necessary  number  of  States,  twenty- 
nine  having  voted  for  it.  The  announcement  of  the  re 
sult  was  made  on  the  3Oth  of  March,  by  a  message  from 
the  President,  and  a  bill  was  at  once  introduced,  and 
speedily  passed,  to  secure  freedom  of  suffrage  to  the 
whole  Colored  population  of  every  State  in  the  Union. 
It  was  vain  any  longer  in  Congress  to  oppose  the  enact- 


5C6        JOY   IN    WASHINGTON    OVER   THE   RATIFICATION. 

ment ;  outside  of  Congress  all  opposition  jyas  known  to 
be  unavailing.  The  final  decision  of  a  great  Nation  was 
clothed  with  a  solemnity  of  sanction  which  transcended 
that  of  any  divinity  which  ever  hedged  a  king. 

The  public  joy  in  the  capital  was  manifested  by  illu 
minations,  serenades,  and  speeches.  To  the  multitude 
— amongst  them  thousands  of  the  colored  of  both  sexes- 
assembled  in  front  of  the  Executive  Mansion,  President 
GRANT  ventured  upon  one  of  the  longest  speeches  of 
his  life.  He  said  : 

I  can  assure  those  present  that  there  has  been  no  event  since  the 
close  of  the  war  in  which  I  have  felt  so  deep  an  interest,  as  that  of  the 
ratification  of  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  to  the  Constitution  by  three- 
fourths  of  the  States  of  the  Union.  I  have  felt  the  greatest  anxiety, 
ever  since  I  have  been  in  this  house,  to  know  that  that  was  to  be  se 
cured.  It  looked  to  me  as  the  realization  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence.  I  cannot  say  near  so  much  on  this  subject  as  I  would  like 
to,  not  being  accustomed  to  public  speaking ;  but  I  thank  you  very 
much  for  your  presence  this  evening. 

But  this  speech,  long  as  it  was — for  him — was  greeted 
with  tremendous  and  prolonged  cheers,  and  the  crowd 
retired,  as  the  band  struck  up  what  seemed  to  have  al 
ready  become  one  of  the  national  airs — "John  Brown's 
body  lies  mouldering  in  the  grave." 

XIX. 

But  the  grandest  demonstration  of  all  was  before  the 
house  of  Senator  SUMNER.  It  was  the  first  time  he  had 
ever  appeared  and  responded  on  such  an  occasion,  and 
he  embraced  the  opportunity  to  lift  the  flag  of  reform 
and  progress  still  higher,  rather  than  to  fritter  away  such 
precious  moments  in  public  or  self  congratulation. 

He  did,  in  the  beginning,  congratulate  the  now  silent 


SUMNER'S  RESPONSE  TO  THE  SERENADE.  507 


multitude  on  the  great  results  accomplished  in  securing 
equal  rights  for  all,  which  had  so  long  been  his  object, 
and  his  hope  ;  and  to  greet  the  hour  when  the  promise 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  had  become  a  real 
ity.  He  would  not  say  that  it  was  entirely  accomplished, 
for  it  was  not.  It  was  his  nature  to  think  more  of  what 
,  remains  to  be  done,  than  of  what  has  been  done — more 
of  duties  than  of  triumphs.  He  had  only  just  heard 
from  Philadelphia  of  a  decision  in  a  court  of  justice,  that 
a  colored  person  of  foreign  birth  could  not  be  natural 
ized  in  this  country,  because  of  color.  This  is  in  accord 
ance  with  an  old  statute — a  relic  of  the  days  of  slavery. 
He  had  now  a  bill  before  the  Judiciary  Committee  of 
the  Senate,  striking  the  word  "  white  "  from  our  natural 
ization  laws.  It  remains  further  that  equal  rights  shall 
be  conceded  in  all  the  public  conveyances  in  the  United 
States,  that  no  one  be  excluded  therefrom  by  reason 
of  color.  It  also  remains,  he  said,  that  you  here  in 
Washington  shall  complete  this  equality  of  rights  in  your 
common  schools.  You  all  go  together  to  vote,  and  any 
person  may  find  a  seat  in  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  ;  but  the  child  is  shut  out  of  the  common  school  on 
account  of  color.  This  discrimination  must  be  abolished. 
All  schools  must  be  open  to  all,  without  distinction  of 
color.  In  accomplishing  this,  you  will  work,  not  only 
for  yourselves,  but  will  set  an  example  for  all  the  land, 
and  most  especially  for  the  South.  Only  in  this  way  can 
your  school  system  be  extended  for  the  equal  good  of 
all.  And  now,  as  you  have  at  heart  the  education  of 
your  children,  that  they  should  grow  up  in  that  know 
ledge  of  equal  rights,  so  essential  for  their  protection  to 
the  world,  it  is  your  bounden  duty  here  in  Washington 
to  see  that  this  is  accomplished.  Your  school  system 


508  THE   SAN   DOMINGO     SCHEME. 

must  be  founded  on  equal  rights,  so  that  no  one  shall 
be  excluded  on  account  of  color. 


XX. 

The  President,  and  a  strong  party  with  him,  were 
anxious  to  secure  the  annexation  of  Dominica,  and  with 
this  object  in  view,  on  the  5th  of  December,  1870,  in 
his  annual  message,  he  had  said:  "  I  now  firmly  believe 
that  the  moment  it  is  known  that  the  United  States  have 
entirely  abandoned  the  project  of  accepting  as  a  part  of 
its  territory,  the  Island  of  San  Domingo,  a  free  port 
will  be  negotiated  for  by  European  powers,  in  the  Bay 
of  Samana ; "  and  ringing  some  changes  upon  the 
MONROE  doctrine,  he  manifested  a  strong  wish  to  have 

o 

something  effectual  done  on  the  subject.  On  the  i2th 
of  the  month,  Mr.  MORTON  offered  Resolutions  autho 
rizing  the  President  to  appoint  three  Commissioners, 
and  a  Secretary,  to  proceed  to  the  Island,  to  obtain  all 
sorts  of  information,  etc.,  and  report. 

When  the  matter  came  up,  Mr.  SUMNER,  who  com 
prehended  the  whole  subject  better  than  any  man  in 
either  House,  moved  that  the  Senate  proceed  to  the 
consideration  of  Executive  business  ;  and  he  spoke 
against  the  whole  annexation  scheme.  He  began  by 
saying  :  "  Mr.  President, — The  resolution  before  the 
Senate  commits  Congress  to  a  dance  of  blood.  It  is 
a  new  step  in  a  measure  of  violence  ;  several  steps  have 
already  been  taken,  and  Congress  is  now  summoned  to 
take  another."  He  went  on  to  show  that  "  the  motive 
which  prompted  the  appointment  of  this  Commission 
was  by  no  means  limited  to  inquiry  concerning  the  con 
dition  of  that  Island,  but  it  committed  Congress  to  the 


,  COLORED    CONVENTION   IN   SOUTH   CAROLINA.  509 

policy  of  its  annexation.  He  foresaw  that  the  country 
would  suffer  in  its  good  name  ;  that  the  negotiation  for 
annexation  was  begun  with  a  person  known  as  BUEN 
AVENTURA  BAEZ,  whom  official  and  unofficial  evidence 
showed  to  be  a  political  jockey  ;  that  it  was  a  scheme 
which  would  be  attended  with  violence  towards  Dominica 
and  violence  towards  Hayti." 

XXL 

A  convention  of  delegates  representing  the  Negro 
population  of  the  country  had  been  held  in  St.  Louis,  on 
the  2 /th  of  September,  which,  among  other  Resolutions, 
passed  one  asking  all  the  State  Legislatures  to  enact  a 
compulsory  law  compelling  all  children  between  seven 
and  twelve  years  of  age  to  attend  school.  Another  Con 
vention  representing  all  the  Negro  population  in  the 
late  slave-holding  States,  was  held  at  Columbia,  South 
Carolina,  on  the  24th  of  October.  It  was  a  manly  and 
noble  address  which  the  delegates  adopted  to  be  sent 
out  to  the  people  of  the  United  States,  a  portion  of 
which  was  as  follows  :— 

While  we  have,  as  a  body,  contributed  our  labor  in  the  past  to  en 
hance  the  wealth  and  promote  the  welfare  of  the  community,  we  have 
as  a  class  been  deprived  of  one  of  the  chief  benefits  to  be  derived  from 
industry,  namely,  the  acquisition  of  education  and  experience,  the  return 
that  civilization  makes  for  the  labor  of  the  individual.  Our  want  in  this 
respect  not  only  extends  to  general  education,  and  experience  such  as 
fit  the  man  to  adorn  the  society  of  his  fellows,  but  to  that  special  edu 
cation  and  experience  required  to  enable  us  to  enter  successfully  the 
departments  of  a  diversified  industry. 

We  ask  that  your  Representatives  in  Congress  may  be  instructed  to 
afford  such  aid,  in  extending  education  to  the  uneducated  classes  in  the- 
States  we  represent,  as  may  be  consistent  with  the  financial  interests  of 
the  nation.  Although  we  urge  our  unrequited  labors  in  the  past  as  the 


510  ADDRESS   TO   THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE. 

ground  of  this  appeal,  yet  we  do  not  seek  these  benefits  for  ourselves 
alone,  but  for  the  white  portion  of  the  laboring-class  in  our  States,  whose 
need  is  as  great  as  ours. 

In  order  to  secure  the  promotion  of  our  industrial  interests,  you  can 
render  us  assistance.  It  is  true  we  have  no  demands  to  make  of  the 
national  government  in  this  respect ;  but  it  is  in  the  power  of  the  people 
of  the  United  States  to  aid  us  materially.  In  order  to  advance  our 
knowledge  and  skill  in  the  industrial  arts,  it  is  necessary  that  we  should 
have  the  advantage  of  the  means  employed  in  the  country  at  large  for 
those  purposes.  That  in  preparing  for  industrial  pursuits  and  in  putting 
our  skill  in  operation,  we  should  come  in  contact  with  educated  and 
experienced  workmen,  and  be  put  in  possession  of  the  result  of  their 
skill  and  knowledge.  If  the  trades  and  workshops  are  shut  against  us, 
we  cannot  reach  that  point  of  excellence  to  which  we  desire  to  attain. 
We  ask  your  aid  and  sympathy  in  placing  us  on  the  same  footing  in 
reference  to  the  pursuit  of  industry,  as  that  enjoyed  by  other  citizens. 
If,  after  having  access  to  the  means  of  becoming  skillful  workmen,  we 
fail  to  attain  that  standing,  we  are  content  to  take  rank  among  the  in 
dustrial  classes  of  the  country  according  to  the  degree  of  our  proficiency. 
Should  we  be  excluded  from  these  benefits,  a  state  of  things  will  arise, 
most  prejudicial  to  the  interest  of  skilled  labor,  namely,  the  existence  of 
a  great  body  of  workmen  ready  to  supply  the  market  with  poor  work, 
at  cheap  rates.  While  slavery  existed,  the  Northern  States  were  not 
affected  by  the  low  state  of  the  industrial  arts  in  the  Southern  States  ; 
but  labor  being  now  free  to  find  the  best  market,  it  is,  beyond  question, 
the  interest  of  the  artificers  of  the  North  to  raise  the  standard  of  profi 
ciency  at  the  South.  It  is  clearly  the  interest  of  the  great  industries  of 
the  North  to  strengthen  themselves  by  alliance  with  those  at  the  South. 
This  result  would  be  practicable  to  the  fullest  extent,  if  those  of  our 
color  throughout  the  North  could  be  placed  in  a  position  to  bring  among 
us  the  best  knowledge  and  skill  in  the  departments  of  trade  to  which 
they  belong. 

XXII. 

During  the  session  of  this  Convention,  the  following 
letter  from  Mr.  SUMNER  was  read  : 

BOSTON,  October  21,  1871. 

DEAR  SIR  :  I  am  glad  that  our  colored  fellow-citizens  are  to  have  a 
convention  of  their  own.  So  long  as  they  are  excluded  from  rights,  or 


SUMNER'S  LETTER  TO  THE  COLORED  CONVENTION.    511 

suffer  in' any  way,  on  account  of  color,  they  will  naturally  meet  together 
in  order  to  find  a  proper  remedy,  and,  since  you  kindly  invite  me  to 
communicate  with  the  convention,  I  make  bold  to  offer  a  few  brief 
suggestions. 

In  the  first  place,  you  must  at  all  times  insist  upon  your  rights,  and 
here  I  mean  not  only  those  already  accorded,  but  others  still  denied, 
all  of  which  are  contained  in  equality  before  the  law.  Wherever  the 
law  supplies  a  rule,  there  you  must  insist  upon  equal  rights.  How  much 
remains  to  be  obtained,  you  know  too  well  in  the  experience  of  life. 
Can  a  respectable  colored  citizen  travel  on  steamboats  or  railways,  or 
public  conveyances  generally,  without  insult  on  account  of  color? 
Let  Lieutenant-Governor  Dunn,  of  Louisiana,  describe  his  journey 
from  New  Orleans  to  Washington.  Shut  out  from  proper  accommoda 
tions  in  the  cars,  the  doors  of  the  Senate  Chamber  opened  to  him,  and 
there  he  found  the  equality  which  a  railroad  conductor  had  denied. 
Let  our  excellent  friend,  Frederick  Douglass,  relate  his  melancholy 
experience,  when,  within  sight  of  the  Executive  Mansion,  he  was  thrust 
back  from  the  dinner-table  where  his  brother  commissioners  were  already 
seated.  You  know  the  outrage.  I  might  ask  the  same  question  in 
regard  to  hotels,  or  even  common  schools.  An  hotel  is  a  legal  institu 
tion,  and  so  is  a  common  school.  As  such,  each  must  be  for  the  equal 
benefit  of  all.  Now,  can  there  be  any  exclusion  from  either  on  ac 
count  of  color?  It  is  not  enough  to  provide  separate  accommodations 
for  colored  citizens,  even  if  in  all  respects  as  good  as  those  of  other 
persons.  Equality  is  not  found  in  an  equivalent,  but  only  in  equality. 
In  other  words,  there  must  be  no  discrimination  on  account  of  color. 
The  discrimination  is  an  insult  and  a  hindrance,  and  a  bar,  which  not 
only  always  destroys  comfort  and  prevents  equality,  but  weakens  all 
other  rights. 

The  right  to  vote  will  have  new  security  when  your  equal  right  in 
public  conveyances,  hotels,  and  common  schools,  is  at  last  established  ; 
but  here  you  must  insist  for  yourselves,  by  speech,  by  petition,  and  by 
vote.  Help  yourselves,  and  others  will  help  you  also.  The  Civil 
Rights  law  needs  a  supplement  to  cover  such  cases.  This  defect  has 
been  apparent  from  the  beginning,  and,  for  a  long  time,  I  have  striven 
to  remove  it.  I  have  a  bill  for  this  purpose  now  pending  in  the  Senate. 
Will  not  my  colored  fellow-citizens  see  that  those  in  power  shall  no 
longer  postpone  this  essential  safeguard  ?  Surely,  here  is  an  object 
worthy  of  effort. 

Nor  has  the  Republican  party  done  its  work  until  this  is  established. 


512  HIS   ADVICE   TO   THE    CONVENTION. 

Is  it  not  better  to  establish  all  our  own  people  in  the  enjoyment  of 
equal  rights  before  we  seek  to  bring  others  within  the  sphere  of  our  in 
stitutions,  to  be  treated  as  Frederick  Douglass  was  on  his  way  to  the 
President  from  St.  Domingo  ?  It  is  easy  to  see  that  a  small  part  of  the 
means,  the  energy  and  the  determined  will  spent  in  the  expedition  to  St. 
Domingo,  and  in  the  prolonged  war-dance  about  that  island,  with  men 
ace  to  the  black  Republic  of  Hayti,  would  have  secured  all  our  colored 
fellow-citizens  in  the  enjoyment  of  equal  rights.  Of  this  there  can  be 
no  doubt. 

Among  the  cardinal  objects  in  education  which  must  be  insisted  on 
must  be  equality,  side  by  side  with  the  alphabet.  It  is  vain  to  teach 
equality,  if  you  do  not  practise  it.  It  is  vain  to  recite  the  great  words 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  if  you  do  not  make  them  a  living 
reality.  What  is  lesson  without  example  ?  As  all  are  equal  at  the 
ballot-box,  so  must  all  be  equal  at  the  common  school.  Equality  in  the 
common  school  is  the  preparation  for  equality  at  the  ballot-box  ;  there 
fore  do  I  put  this  among  the  essentials  of  education. 

In  asserting  your  own  rights  you  will  not  fail  to  insist  upon  justice  to 
all,  under  which  is  necessarily  included  purity  in  the  government. 
Thieves  and  money-changers,  whether  Democrats  or  Republicans, 
must  be  driven  out  of  our  temple.  Tammany  Hall  and  the  Republican 
self-seekers  must  be  overthrown.  There  should  be  no  place  for  either. 
Thank  God,  good  men  are  now  coming  to  the  rescue  !  Let  them,  while 
uniting  against  corruption,  insist  upon  equal  rights  for  all,  and  also  the 
suppression  of  lawless  violence,  wherever  it  shows  itself,  whether  in  the 
Ku-klux  Klan  outraging  the  South,  or  illicit  undertakings  outraging  the 
black  Republic  of  Hayti. 

To  these  inestimable  objects,  add  specie  payments,  and  you  have  a 
platform  which  ought  to  be  accepted  by  the  American  people.  Will 
not  our  colored  fellow-citizens  begin  this  good  work  ?  Let  them  at  the 
same  time  save  themselves  and  save  the  country.  These  are  the  only 
hints  which  I  submit  to  the  convention,  hoping  that  its  proceedings  will 
tend  especially  to  the  good  wishes  of  the  colored  race.  Accept  my 
thanks  and  best  wishes,  and  believe  me  faithfully  yours, 

CHARLES  SUMNER. 

XXIII. 

During  the  years  which  followed  the  close  of  the  Re 
bellion,  Senator  SUMNER  embraced  every  available  op- 


COLORED  NATIONAL  CONVENTION,  NEW  ORLEANS.   $13 

portunity  to  press  his  Civil  Rights  Bill  upon  the  Senate. 
Speech  after  speech,  resolution  after  resolution,  the  occa 
sion  of  presenting"  petitions  from  Colored  persons, — one 
and  all  were  alike  to  him.  But  he  seemed  to  encounter 
that  worst  of  all  obstacles,— indifference — which  it  was 
impossible  to  overcome.  Upon  a  direct  vote,  as  a  mat 
ter  of  principle,  none  of  the  friends  of  the  three  grand 
Amendments  to  the  Constitution  would  have  pretended 
to  argue ;  and  all  objections  urged  were  either  confessedly 
futile,  or  totally  unworthy  of  the  spirit  of  Congress  that 
had  achieved  so  much  for  humanity,  and  for  the  elevation 
of  the  Colored  race. 

A  Colored  National  Convention  assembled  in  New 
Orleans  in  1872,  on  the  I5th  of  April.  There  were 
many  able  delegates  in  that  body,  and  their  proceedings 
were  marked  with  high  intelligence,  calm  deliberation, 
and  maturity  of  judgment.  The  following  letter  was 
read  from  Mr.  SUMNER,  and  received  with  the  profoundest 
respect  and  many  demonstrations  of  admiration  and  gra 
titude  : 

*  WASHINGTON,  April  7,  1872. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :  In  reply  to  your  inquiry,  I  make  haste  to  say  that, 
in  my  judgment,  the  Colored  Convention  should  think  more  of  prin 
ciples  than  of  men,  except  so  far  as  men  may  stand  for  principles. 
Above  all,  let  them  insist  on  the  rights  of  their  own  much-abused  and 
insulted  people.  It  is  absurd  for  anybody  to  say  that  he  "accepts  the 
situation,"  and  then  deny  the  equal  rights  of  the  colored  man.  If  the 
"  situation "  is  accepted  in  good  faith,  it  must  be  entirely,  including 
not  merely  the  abolition  of  slavery  and  the  establishment  of  equal 
suffrage,  but  also  all  those  other  rights  which  are  still  denied  and 
abridged.  There  must  be  complete  equality  before  the  law,  so  that  in 
all  institutions,  agencies  or  conveniences,  erected  or  regulated  by  law, 
there  can  be  no  discrimination  on  account  of  color,  but  a  black  man 
shall  be  treated  as  a  white  man. 

In  maintaining  their  rights,  it  will  be  proper  for  the  convention  to 
invoke  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  so  that  its  principles  and 
33 


5H         A  FRIEND'S  LAST  EVENING  WITH  SUMNER. 

promises  shall  become  a  living  reality,  never  to  be  questioned  in  any 
way,  but  recognized  always  as  a  guide  of  conduct,  and  a  governing  rule 
in  the  interpretation  of  the  national  Constitution,  being  in  the  nature  of 
a  bill  of  rights,  preceding  the  Constitution.  It  is  not  enough  to  pro 
claim  liberty  throughout  the  land  unto  all  the  inhabitants  thereof. 
Equality  must  be  proclaimed  also,  and  as,  since  both  are  promised  by 
the  great  declaration,  which  is  a  national  act,  and  as  from  their  nature 
they  should  be  uniform  throughout  the  country,  both  must  be  placed 
under  the  safeguard  of  national  law.  There  can  be  but  one  liberty  and 
one  equality,  the  same  in  Boston  and  New  Orleans,  the  same  every 
where  throughout  the  country.  The  colored  people  are  not  ungenerous, 
and  therefore  will  incline  to  any  measures  of  good-will  and  reconcilia 
tion  ;  but  I  trust  no  excess  of  benevolence  will  make  them  consent  to 
any  postponement  of  those  equal  rights  which  are  now  denied.  The 
disabilities  of  colored  people,  loyal  and  long-suffering,  should  be  re 
moved  before  the  disabilities  of  former  rebels,  or  at  least  the  two  re 
movals  should  go  hand-in-hand.  It  only  remains  that  I  should  say, 
"  Stand  firm  !  "  The  politicians  will  then  know  that  you  are  in  earnest, 
and  will  no  longer  be  trifled  with.  Victory  will  follow  soon,  and  the 
good  cause  be  secure  forever.  Meanwhile,  accept  my  best  wishes  for 
the  convention,  and  believe  me,  dear  professor,  faithfully  yours, 

CHARLES  SUMNER, 
To  Professor  JOHN  M.  LANGSTON. 

XXIV. 

An  intimate  friend  who  had  made  his  last  call  upon  the 
Senator  the  Monday  evening  previous  to  his  death,  thus 
wrote,  in  the  Washington  Chronicle  : 

He  greeted  me,  saying,  "  I  am  so  weary  thinking  over  my  speech  on 
finance.*  I  wanted  a  change — a  ray  of  sunlight — and  I  am  so  glad  you 

*  One  cause  of  regret,  even  in  his  dying  hours,  was  that  he  had  not  l>een  well 
enough  to  participate  in  the  Debate  on  Finance  then  going  on  in  the  Senate.  But  al 
though  his  inflexible  opposition  to  any  further  inflation  of  the  currency  was  well 
known,  he  placed  the  matter  beyond  the  reach  of  doubt  by  writing  the  following  with 
his  own  hand: — "Mr.  Sumner  consented  with  great  reluctance  to  the  original 
measure  suspending  specie  payments,  and  he  has  been  always  for  the  earliest  practi 
cable  resumption.  At  different  times  he  has  introduced  bills  to  secure  this  result,  and 
has  urged  it  by  speech  at  home  and  in  the  Senate.  During  the  present  session  he  has 


SUMNER   AT   HOME.  5*5 

came."  He  at  once  began  to  talk  on  European  politics,  which  to  him 
was  an  outspread  map,  and  whose  kaleidoscopic  changes  he  viewed 
with  absorbing  interest.  He  spoke  of  Gladstone — his  noble  struggle  in 
the  cause  of  Liberalism,  his  success,  his  failure,  and  his  fall  ;  he  gave  a 
sketch  of  a  breakfast  with  him,  and  summed  up  by  expressions  of  his 
firm  faith  in  the  ultimate  triumph  of  those  principles  which  Gladstone 
so  nobly  championed.  "  A  great  man  under  the  shadow  of  a  defeat," 
said  he,  "  is  taught  how  precious  are  the  uses  of  adversity,  and  as  an 
oak  tree's  roots  are  strengthened  by  its  shadow,  so  all  defeats  in  a  good 
cause  are  but  resting-places  on  the  road  to  victory  at  last."  He  spoke 
of  the  patchwork  Empire  of  Germany,  of  Bismarck,  and  Delia  Mar 
mora — of  truth,  stranger  than  fiction,  viz.,  of  the  Italian  statesman's  as 
sertion  of  Bismarck's  offer  to  cede  France  a  portion  of  German  territory 
— of  the  impolicy  of  the  annexation  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine — of  the  dif 
ferences  with  the  Catholic  Church,  the  imprisonment  of  her  prelates — 
and  then,  taking  a  volume  of  Milton,  he  read,  in  deep,  rich  tones  of 
tender  melody,  his  famous  sonnet  upon  the  persecution  of  the  Wal- 
denses  during  Cromwell's  protectorate. 

In  closing,  he  added  :  "  Thus  history  revenges  herself."  About  this 
time  his  evening  mail  was  brought  ;  whenever  he  came  to  one  interest 
ing  note  or  letter  he  would  look  it  over  and  then  hand  it  to  me  to  read. 
*  *  *  The  next  letter  was  from  Philadelphia,  an  anonymous  attack  of 
the  bitterest  description,  impugning  his  motives  concerning  his  speech 
on  the  International  Centenary  Exposition,  winding  up  with  a  threat  of 
violence,  which  I  forbear  to  transcribe.  As  lie  handed  it  to  me  he  said, 
good-humoredly  :  "I  am  used  to  such  letters."  I  read  it,  and,  as  I  did 
so,  consigned  it  to  the  blazing  grate.  The  next  letter  was  from 
Indiana,  one  of  those  good,  whole-souled  letters,  full  of  sympathy  and 
admiration,  with  an  urgent,  earnest  invitation  for  him  to  visit  the  writer 
next  summer,  and  an  offer  of  generous  and  unstinted  hospitality. 
"There,"  said  he,  "  you  have  burned  the  bane,  and  here  is  the  anti 
dote."  His  next  letter  was  from  Boston,  full  of  hearty  thankfulness  for 
his  restoration  to  health,  and  cheer  for  the  future.  It  was  closely  writ- 
introduced  a  bill  providing  for  the  monthly  withdrawal  of  greenbacks  by  the  substitu 
tion  of  compound  interest  notes,  which  has  been  approved  by  many  leading  financial 
characters,  and  especially  by  the  Boston  Board  of  Trade.  He  regrets  the  withdrawal 
of  money  from  Massachusetts,  but  regards  this  measure  as  insignificant  by  the  side  of 
the  attempt  to  inflate  the  currency.  He  sees  no  objection  to  free  banking  if  united 
with  specie  payments.  The  possibility  of  a  new  issue  of  inconvertible  paper  he  re 
gards  with  amazement  and  anxiety,  and,  in  his  judgment,  such  an  issue  would  be  a 
detriment  and  a  shame." 


5l6  LAST   SPEECH   IN   THE   SENATE. 

ten,  and  as  he  handed  it  to  me  he  said  :  "  This  is  no  summer  friend." 
The  last  of  many  letters  was  one  of  congratulation  about  the  Massa 
chusetts  legislative  resolutions,  rescinding  the  vote  of  censure.  I  never 
saw  him  look  more  happy  than  when  he  finished  reading  it.  He  then 
arose  and  showed  me  with  satisfaction  the  legislative  resolutions  beau 
tifully  engrossed  on  parchment,  and  observed  the  copies  for  the  Re 
presentatives  were  simply  on  paper.  I  asked,  "  Will  you  address  the 
Senate  when  they  are  presented  ?"  He  replied,  "The  dear  old  Com 
monwealth  has  spoken  for  me,  and  that  is  enough." 


XXV. 

His  last  speech  in  the  Senate — the  Friday  before  his 
death — was  on  the  subject  of  the  Centennial  Celebra 
tion,  strongly  urging  that  it  should  be  made  simply  a 
National,  and  not  an  International  affair — fearing  it  would 
be  attended  with  corruption,  and  end  in  failure ;  and  in 
doing  so,  he  laid  down  the  following  propositions,  which 
he  commended  to  the  attention  of  the  Senate  and  the 
country,  and  which  he  intended  subsequently  to  enforce 
by  further  argument : 

The  Centennial  celebration  of  1876  should  be  first  and  foremost,  and 
I  think  it  scarcely  too  much  to  say,  only  a  grateful  vindication  of  1776. 

It  should  be  severely  and  grandly  simple,  not  ostentatious  or  boast 
ful. 

It  should  be  inexpensive,  for  a  thousand  obvious  reasons  •  but,  above 
all,  because  it  does  not  become  a  nation  any  more  than  an  individual 
on  the  verge  of  bankruptcy  to  be  extravagant,  especially  at  the  moment 
when  the  attention  of  the  world  is  invited  to  the  study  and  imitation  of 
her  methods  of  management. 

It  should  be  national  and  not  provincial.  It  should  be  so  conducted 
that  all,  and  not  a  few  only,  can  participate  in  it. 

It  should  not  involve  the  displacement  of  large  masses  of  people, 
which  is  perilous  to  the  health,  expensive,  and  more  or  less  demoraliz 
ing. 

It  should  be  free  from  every  feature  calculated  to  sectionalize  or  di 


DESCRIPTION   OF   THE   CLOSING   SCENES.  5 1/ 

vide  trie  country,  and  be  so  managed  as  to  secure  the  greatest  possible 
harmony  and  unanimity. 

It  should  be  as  educating  and  elevating  in  its  influences  as  possible, 
both  in  this  and  foreign  countries. 

All  these  results  may  be  secured  by  proper  instrumentalities.  I  think 
none  of  them  will  be  if  the  Philadelphia  scheme  is  encouraged  by  the 
Federal  Government  any  further.  Of  the  international  part  of  it,  the 
converting  it  into  a  European  Fair,  with  an  American  corner  for  Yankee 
notions,  I  will  not  trust  myself  to  speak. 

To  all  these  considerations  I  add  yet  another.  A  World's  Fair  is 
essentially  governmental  in  character.  Such  it  has  been  in  other  coun 
tries,  and  such  I  fear  it  must  be  in  ours.  The  Government  invites,  the 
Government  is  host;  the  Government,  therefore,  must  guide  and  shape 
its  conduct,  and  must  pay  the  expenses,  as  if  it  were  the  army  or  navy. 


SECTION   ELEVENTH. 

His  Death,  and  Public  Honors  to  his  Memory. 

I. 

PROBABLY  one  of  the  most  careful  and  accurate  accounts 
of  Mr.  Sumner's  illness  and  death  that  appeared  at  the 
time,  or  that  will  be  likely  to  be  given  hereafter,  was 
printed  in  that  very  able  journal,  the  Boston  Daily 
Globe.  The  writer  was  a  personal  friend  of  the  great 
statesman,  and  an  eye-witness  of  the  scenes  he  describes. 
His  account  was  written  and  transmitted  to  Boston  the 
evening  of  the  sad  day,  and  appearing  later,  also,  in 
weekly  edition,  any  inadvertencies  would  be  corrected. 

The  Hon.  Charles  Sunnier  died  at  ten  minutes  before  three  o'clock, 
this  afternoon,  March  n.  Those  present  in  the  chamber  when  the 


5l8  HIS   FRIENDS   AT   HIS   LAST  DINNER. 

Senator  expired  were  his  physicians,  Senator  Schurz,  Judge  Hoar,  Mr. 
Hooper,  Mr.  Johnson  and  Mr.  Downing. 

The  sudden  illness  of  Senator  Stunner,  which  terminated  fatally,  to-day, 
was  known  only  to  his  physician  and  a  few  of  his  most  intimate  friends, 
last  night.  On  Monday  evening,  he  complained  of  some  symptoms  of 
his  attack  of  last  winter,  but  neither  he  nor  his  friends  paid  much  at 
tention  to  it.  Yesterday,  he  went  to  the  Senate,  as  usual,  and  appeared 
to  be  in  good  health  and  spirits.  Several  persons  who  had  not  seen  him 
for  some  time  remarked  that  he  looked  unusually  well.  About  two 
o'clock,  yesterday  afternoon,  the  Hon.  Samuel  Hooper  visited  Mr. 
Sumner,  at  his  seat  in  the  Senate.  The  Senator  then  complained  of 
acute  pain  in  the  region  of  the  heart,  and  said  something  about  going 
home  early.  Mr.  Hooper  volunteered  to  drive  him  home  in  his  carnage, 
at  half-past  three,  the  hour  at  which  Mr.  Hooper  generally  leaves  the 
House.  Mr.  Sumner  accepted  the  invitation,  whereupon  Mr.  Hooper 
returned  to  the  House,  saying  he  would  call  for  him  at  the  hour  desig 
nated.  In  the  meantime,  Mr.  Sumner  attended  to  his  business  in  the 
Senate,  writing  letters,  and  occasionally  listening  to  the  financial  debate 
which  was  in  progress.  About  half-past  three,  Mr.  Hooper  appeared 
in  the  Senate.  Mr.  Sumner  remarked  that  the  pain  was  only  temporary, 
and  he  did  not  feel  it  then.  He  and  Mr.  Hooper  left  together,  the 
latter's  carriage  taking  the  Senator  to  his  residence,  corner  of  H  Street 
and  Vermont  Avenue.  At  six  o'clock  he  dined,  having  as  his  guests  the 
Hon.  H.  L.  Pierce,  of  Boston,  and  Major  Ben.  Perley  Poore.  At 
dinner,  he  appeared  to  be  in  his  usual  health  and  enjoyed  the  meal  with 
his  customary  heartiness  and  zest.  Mr.  Pierce  and  Major  Poore  took 
their  departure  about  half-past  eight  o'clock.  During  the  progress  of 
the  dinner,  the  Senator  referred  to  his  health,  and  particularly  to  the 
pain  he  had  experienced  in  the  afternoon.  He  seemed  to  dread  a  re 
turn  of  the  attack  of  last  winter,  but  his  guests  expressed  the  hope  that 
nothing  serious  would  follow. 

Between  nine  and  ten  o'clock  in  the  evening,  the  paroxysm  of  pain 
returned,  and  steadily  increased  until  the  Senator  called  upon  his  sec 
retary,  Mr.  Johnson,  for  aid.  His  physician,  Dr.  Tabor  Johnson,  hap 
pened  to  be  present,  and,  at  Mr.  Sumner' s  request,  administered  a  sub 
cutaneous  injection  of  morphine.  His  feet  were  bathed  in  hot  water, 
with  mustard  and  salt.  This  afforded  temporary  relief,  and,  at  the  re 
quest  of  Dr.  Johnson,  Mr.  Sumner  retired  to  bed.  As  soon  as  the 
soothing  effect  of  the  morphine  passed  away,  the  pain  returned,  with 
more  intensity.  It  was  now  near  midnight,  and  Mr.  Johnson,  becoming 


FEELING  IN   WASHINGTON.      MR.    DANA'S   SUN.  519 

alarmed  at  the  threatening  symptoms,  thought  it  prudent  to  call  in  more 
medical  aid  and  the  assistance  of  such  of  the  Senator's  friends  as  were 
in  the  vicinity.  He  awoke  Mr,  James  Wormley,  the  well-known 
colored  caterer,  and  Mr.  Simmer's  lifelong  devoted  friend.  Mr. 
Wormley  informed  the  Hon.  Samuel  Hooper,  who  lives  directly  opposite 
Wormley' s  Hotel,  and  also  the  Hon.  Henry  L.  Pierce,  who  is  a  guest 
at  Wormley' s. 

Mr.   DANA,   in   his   New  York   82111,  thus   touchingly 
speaks  of  the  feeling"  which  pervaded  Washington  :— 

As  CHARLES  SUMMER  lay  dying,  the  sorrow  of  an  entire  nation  was 
seen  in  the  air  of  affliction  which  pervaded  the  Federal  city.  The 
breathless  suspense  which  awaited  the  departure  of  his  spirit  was  con 
fined  to  no  class.  If  there  was  gloom  in  the  Capitol  there  was  mourn 
ing  in  the  cabin.  Courtly  Senators  deplored  a  public  calamity,  and 
exchanged  graceful  tributes  to  the  memory  of  a  statesman  ;  but  the 
enfranchised  slave  bewailed  a  personal  loss,  and  raised  his  unfettered 
hands  to  bless  a  benefactor.  All  men  who  love  justice  and  honor 
integrity,  felt  that  justice  and  integrity  were  about  to  lose  a  well-tried, 
living  exemplar.  Many,  indeed,  bemoaned  it  as  a  sad  hour  for  SUMNER 
to  die  in.  They  remembered  his  work,  that  it  was  done  ;  but  they  re 
membered  his  soul,  that  it  was  pure,  and  they  would  have  had  it  pass 
away  unvexed  by  the  licentious  practices  which  at  present  prevail  in 
the  Government  he  lived  to  serve. 

Men  spoke  softly  on  the  street ;  their  very  voices  betokened  the  im 
pending  event,  and  even  their  footfalls  are  said  to  have  been  lighter 
than  common.  But  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Senator's  house  there 
was  a  scene  of  singular  and  touching  interest.  Splendid  equipages 
rolled  to  the  corner  over  pavements  conceived  in  fraud  and  laid  in  cor 
ruption,  to  testify  the  regard  of  their  occupants  for  eminent  purity  of 
life.  Liveried  servants  carried  hopeless  messages  from  the  door  of  him 
\vho  was  simplicity  itself,  and  to  whom  the  pomp  and  pageantry  of  this 
evil  day  were  but  the  evidences  of  guilty  degeneracy.  Through  all 
those  lingering  hours  of  anguish  the  sad  procession  came  and  went. 
On  the  sidewalk  stood  a  numerous  and  grateful  representation  of  the 
race  to  whom  he  had  given  the  proudest  efforts  and  the  best  energies 
of  his  existence.  The  black  man  bowed  his  head  in  unaffected  grief, 
and  the  black  woman  sat  hushing  her  babe  upon  the  curbstone,  in  mute 
expectation  of  the  last  decisive  intelligence  from  the  chamber  above. 


520  SUMNER'S  LAST  HOURS. 

The  Globe  continues  :— 

In  the  meantime,  a  messenger  was  despatched  for  Dr.  Lincoln.  The 
entire  party  was  soon  at  the  bedside  of  Mr.  SUMNKR,  who.  by  this  time, 
was  suffering  great  pain.  After  another  injection  of  morphine,  and  a 
dose  of  brandy  and  ammonia,  he  seemed  easier,  and  at  t\vo  o'clock  he 
had  so  much  improved  that  his  friends,  with  the  exception  of  his  sec 
retary,  thought  it  safe  to  retire  to  their  homes.  The  Senator  appeared 
to  be  unusually  sensitive,  and  apologized  for  giving  so  much  trouble. 
He  told  his  secretary,  Mr.  Johnson,  and  his  physicians,  to  go  to  bed, 
assuring  them  that  he  was  much  better.  Dr.  Johnson  remained  all 
night,  watching  with  anxiety  the  development  of  the  symptoms.  It  is 
proper  to  state  that  during  all  his  illness.  Dr.  Johnson  has  merely  acted 
under  the  advice  of  Dr.  Brown-Sequard,  only  administering  the  pre 
scriptions  of  that  physician,  who  thoroughly  understood  Mr.  Su  inner' s  case. 

Towards  morning  the  Senator  grew  worse,  his  symptoms  became 
more  alarming,  and  he  began  to  lose  strength  rapidly.  About  six 
o'clock,  Mr.  Wormley,  Mr.  Hooper,  Mr.  Pierce,  and  other  friends  ar 
rived,  and  it  was  at  once  decided  to  have  a  consultation  of  physicians. 
Surgeon-General  Barnes.  Dr.  Lincoln,  and  Dr.  W.  P.  Johnson  were 
summoned,  and  were  soon  in  attendance.  The  result  of  the  consul 
tation  was  the  opinion  that  Mr.  Sumner  could  scarcely  survive.  At 
'the  Senator's  request,  Mr.  Wormley  telegraphed  to  New  York  for  Dr. 
Brown-Sequard,  to  Philadelphia  for  Colonel  J.  W.  Forney,  and  other 
intimate  personal  friends.  Those  around  his  bedside  are  of  the  opinion 
that,  at  this  time,  Mr.  Sumner  fully  realized  the  dangerous  character  of 
his  condition.  Everything  was  done  by  the  physicians  and  those  in  at 
tendance  to  procure  relief,  but  all  to  no  purpose.  The  frequent  injec 
tion  of  morphine  seemed  to  relieve,  in  some  degree,  the  pain,  while  the 
administering  of  stimulants  arrested,  for  a  time,  the  failing  strength.  It 
was  now  manifest  to  all  that  the  death  of  the  great  Senator  was  ap 
proaching.  His  secretary  telegraphed  at  once  to  Mr.  Sumner' s  only 
surviving  relative,  Mrs.  Dr.  Hastings,  his  sister,  at  San  Francisco, 
informing  her  of  her  brother's  condition.  The  news  of  his  illness 
spread  rapidly  through  the  city,  and  hundreds  of  people  (white  and 
black),  wended  their  way  to  his  residence. 

Only  his  physicians,  his  secretary,  the  members  of  the  Massachusetts 
delegation,  and  a  few  friends  were  admitted  to  the  Senator's  bed 
chamber  and  his  library  adjoining.  Every  effort  was  made  to  sustain 
life  until  the  arrival  of  Dr.  Brown-Sequard,  who  was  expected  at  half- 


SENATOR  SUMNER'S  LAST  MOMENTS. 


ANTHONY. 
DOWNING. 
POORE. 


HOAR.  SCHURZ. 

WORMLEY. 


FRIENDS   AROUND   HIS   DEATH-BED.  52! 

past  five  o'clock.  It  was  supposed  by  the  Senator's  friends  that  he 
might  be  able  to  do  something  to  save  his  life.  A  telegram  was 
received  from  Dr.  Sequard  stating  that  he  had  left  New  York  on  the 
early  train,  and  recommending  that  an  electric  bath  be  administered. 
When  this  was  received,  the  Senator's  nervous  system  was  so  prostrated 
that  the  physicians  in  attendance  feared  the  bath  might  result  in  violent 
convulsions,  and  they  did  not  like  to  take  the  responsibility.  He  grew 
worse ;  became  unconscious,  and  at  times  delirious.  Occasionally, 
however,  he  would  recognize  those  around  him.  Among  those  almost 
constantly  in  attendance  in  the  Senator's  bed-chamber  were  Senator 
Schurz,  Judge  E.  Rockwood  Hoar,  Mr.  Pierce,  and  Mr.  Hooper. 

To  those  around  him  he  frequently  expressed  regrets  about  the  un 
finished  condition  of  his  works.  He  said  :  "I  should  not  regret  this, 
if  my  book  was  finished,"  alluding  to  his  speeches  and  writings,  now  in 
course  of  publication.  He  was  always  in  the  habit  of  calling  this  his 
"Book."  This  appeared  to  be  constantly  on  his  mind;  and,  when  suf 
fering  intense  agony  and  rolling  about  in  the  bed,  he  would  exclaim, 
"  My  book,  my  book,"  in  a  tone  of  utter  hopelessness.  At  one  time  he 
said,  and  this  was  the  last  allusion  he  made  to  the  subject,  "My  book 
will  not  be  finished,  but  the  great  account  is  closed.*  It  is  the  opinion 
of  his  secretary  that  his  allusion  to  the  great  account  meant  his  account 
with  American  slavery  and  the  conflict  engendered.  When  Judge 
Hoar  entered  the  Senator's  room  at  10  o'clock,  this  morning,  he  im 
mediately  recognized  him.  Mr.  Johnson  had  lifted  him  up,  and  had 
his  arm  under  him.  He  said,  "Don't  let  the  bill  be  lost,"  to  which  Mr. 
Johnson  replied,  "  Certainly  not,  Senator."  Mr.  Sumner  answered,  "  You 
mistake  :  I  mean  the  Civil  Rights  Bill ;"  and  then  turning  to  Judge  Hoar, 
who  was  holding  his  hand,  he  said,  "  Judge,  the  Civil  Rights  Bill ;  don't  let 
it  be  lost."  Upon  each  appearance  of  Judge  Hoar  after  that,  the  Se 
nator  said  something  about  the  Civil  Rights  Bill,  until  his  secretary,  sup 
posing  that  the  presence  of  Judge  Hoar  called  this  to  his  mind  and 
disturbed  him,  suggested  that  he  withdraw. 

*  It  was  reported,  says  the  N.  Y.  Tribune,  that  Mr.  Sumner  expressed  his  regret 
that  he  must  die  before  his  book  was  completed,  and  the  natural  inference  was  that 
he  alluded  to  his  forthcoming  volume  on  the  "  Prophetic  Voices  Concerning  Ame 
rica."  But  it  seems  the  word  he  really  used  was  his  "  work,"  and  that  he  thus 
referred  to  his  pending  bill  for  securing  full  civil  rights  to  the  freedmen  he  had  done 
so  much  to  redeem  from  bondage. 

The  Tribune  is  doubtless  correct.  His  life-work^  and  not  a  book,  was  his  "  ruling 
passion  strong  in  death." 


522  HE   DIES   AT   2.50   P.M.,    MARCH    II,    1874. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  eventful  scene,  Judge  Hoar  came  into  the 
room,  when  the  Senator  again  called  attention  to  the  bill,  whereupon 
Judge  Hoar  promised  him  that  it  should  not  be  lost,  at  the  same  time 
kissing  the  Senator's  hand.  About  ten  minutes  before  his  death,  he 
called  Judge  Hoar  and  said  : 

"  Tell  Emerson  I  love  and  revere  him." 

The  Judge  answered,  "  I  will  tell  Emerson  you  love  and  revere  him, 
for  he  has  told  me  you  had  the  whitest  soul  he  ever  knew." 

During  his  great  pain  he  would  exclaim,  "  I  am  so  tired;  this  can't 
last  long." 

Among  those  who  called  was  Frederick  Douglass,  but  the  Senator 
was  then  too  far  gone  to  recognize  him.  A  little  before  2  o'clock,  Mr. 
Sumner  apparently  fell  asleep  ;  but  he  soon  awoke  and  seemed  better. 
His  friends  hoped  a  change  for  the  better  had  taken  place,  but  it  soon 
became  apparent  he  was  rapidly  sinking,  while  he  was  evidently  suf 
fering  less  pain.  Towards  the  end,  it  is  said,  he  was  entirely  conscious, 
and  recognized  all  around  him.  At  2.50  o'clock,  Dr.  Lincoln  had  his 
hand  on  the  Senator's  pulse  while  George  T.  Downing  was  holding  his 
other  hand.  Suddenly  there  was  a  convulsive  movement  of  the  mus 
cular  system,  the  Senator  grasping  the  hand  of  Downing  so  powerfully 
that  he  almost  crushed  it.  Then,  with  a  sudden  throwing  up  of  his 
hands,  the  Senator  expired  just  as  the  clock  in  his  library  struck 
three,  though  the  correct  time  was  about  ten  minutes  earlier. 

II. 

The  Boston  Daily  Advertiser  thus  describes  the  pub 
lic  obsequies  of  Friday  at  the  Capitol  :— 

The  scene  at  the  residence  was  the  most  unusual.  There  was  no  re 
lative  present  and  yet  the  house  was  filled  with  mourners.  The  Mas 
sachusetts  delegation,  with  their  families,  assembled  early  and  went 
with  the  remains  to  the  Capitol.  A  great  assemblage  of  colored  men, 
headed  by  Fred.  Douglass,  followed  the  hearse,  and  after  them  came 
carriages  with  the  committees  and  mourners.  The  coffin  was  placed 
in  the  centre  of  the  rotunda,  the  outer  cover  removed,  a  plate  glass 
covering  the  entire  top  of  the  coffin,  and  the  features  and  figure  of  Mr. 
Sumner  were  clearly  exposed.  He  was  dressed  in  a  full  suit  of  black, 
with  his  hand  on  his  breast,  as  he  had  so  often  held  it  while  speaking. 
The  features  were  not  entirely  natural,  but  there  was  far  less  change 


PUBLIC   OBSEQUIES   AT   THE    CAPITOL.  523 

than  all  his  friends  had  feared.  There  was  a  great  profusion  of  choice 
flowers  upon  and  around  the  coffin,  some  from  the  White  House  and 
some  from  colored  ladies,  and  the  floral  offerings,  like  the  company 
gathered  to  honor  his  memory,  were  from  all  classes  and  conditions. 
The  rotunda,  the  Senate  chamber  and  the  porches  were  heavily  draped. 
The  great  building,  like  the  multitude  it  contained,  was  in  mourning. 
Long  before  the  hour  for  the  services  in  the  Senate  drew  near,  the  gal 
leries  were  crowded,  and  nearly  all  the  Senators  were  promptly  in  their 
places.  The  House  of  Representatives,  the  Supreme  Court,  the  President 
and  all  the  Cabinet,  were  successively  announced,  and  each  were  re 
ceived  by  the  whole  body  present  standing.  General  Sherman  and 
many  other  officers  of  the  army,  Admiral  Porter,  with  a  number  of  his 
associates,  and  the  authorities  of  the  district  were  present.  The  lega 
tions  sent  a  large  representation,  and  the  diplomatic  gallery  was  filled 
with  the  wives  and  families  of  the  Cabinet  and  the  legations.  At  pre 
cisely  £2.20  the  pall-bearers  appeared  at  the  door  with  the  coffin.  The 
great  company,  so  fully  representing  the  nation,  rose  and  stood  in  pro 
found  silence  as  the  coffin,  covered  with  flowers,  but  open  and  so  ex 
posed  that  all  could  see,  was  carried  slowly  up  to  its  place  before  the 
desk.  The  arrangement  brought  those  together  who,  had  not  death 
stepped  in,  would  seldom  so  meet.  Nearest  to  the  head  of  the  coffin 
sat  the  President;  next  to  him  Secretary  Fish,  and  nearest  the  foot. 
Senator  Schurz.  And  here  in  the  presence  of  this  death,  they  were  all 
moved  alike  to  tears.  The  nation  in  its  three  branches,  legislative,  ex 
ecutive  and  judicial,  stood  close  around  the  coffin,  and  the  people  from 
all  quarters  of  the  land  looked  down  upon  it.  The  eyes  of  the  great 
throng  seemed  to  wander  from  the  coffin  to  the  one  empty  chair  and 
unoccupied  desk,  and  back  to  the  features  of  the  dead  Senator  in  his 
coffin.  The  religious  exercises  were  brief,  lasting  but  half  an  hour,  and 
at  their  close  Senator  Carpenter,  in  a  tone  and  manner  which  none  who 
heard  and  felt  will  ever  forget,  made  this  simple  and  beautiful  announce 
ment :  "And  now  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  entrusts  the  re 
mains  of  Charles  Sumner  to  its  sergeant-at-arms  and  the  committee  ap 
pointed  to  convey  them  to  his  home,  there  to  commit  them,  earth  to 
earth,  ashes  to  ashes,  dust  to  dust,  in  the  soil  of  the  Commonwealth  of 
Massachusetts.  Peace  to  his  ashes."  It  was  by  far  the  most  impres 
sive  sentence  uttered  in  the  chamber,  and  all  were  deeply  moved  by  it. 


524  THE   FUNERAL  TRAIN  TO   BOSTON. 

III. 

The  funeral  train  reached  New  York  at  midnight, 
when  the  casket  was  conveyed  to  the  Fifth  Avenue  Ho 
tel  and  rested  in  a  private  parlor  until  the  next  morning, 
when  it  was  escorted  to  the  Grand  Central  Depot  by  a 
committee  of  the  Union  League.  At  New  York  the 

o 

Congressional  deputation,  which  embraced  nearly  every 
Massachusetts  member,  welcomed  Messrs.  A.  A.  Low, 
S.  B.  Chittenden,  Cyrus  W.  Field,  and  Elliott  C.  Cow- 
din, — a  committee  appointed  to  attend  the  funeral  by  the 
New  York  Chamber  of  Commerce.  The  party  then 
comprised  Senator  Anthony,  Carl  Schurz,  Gen.  B.  F. 
Butler,  James  G.  Blaine,  J.  M.  S.  Williams,  Daniel  W. 
Gooch,  Aaron  A.  Sargent,  John  Sherman,  Richard  J. 
Oglesby,  Augustus  S.  Merriman,  Stephen  A.  Hurlbut, 
Eugene  Hale,  Charles  Foster,  Joseph  H.  Rainey, 
Charles  Clayton,  Henry  J.  Scudder,  Samuel  J.  Randall, 
Joseph  B.  Beck,  John  Hancock,  James  Buffinton,  Henry 
L.  Dawes,  George  F.  Hoar,  E.  R.  Hoar,  Henry  L. 
Pierce,  B.  W.  Harris,  Samuel  Hooper,  Alvah  Crocker  and 
Mr.  George  M.  Downing,  President  of  the  Civil  Rights 
Council  in  Washington.  The  casket  rested  in  the  cen 
tre  of  a  baggage-car,  draped  in  black  and  white,  and 
was  under  the  charge  of  Sergeant-at-Arms  French,  as 
sisted  by  the  Chief  of  the  Capitol  Police,  with  six  men. 
It  was  what  has  been  called  a  State  casket,  composed  of 
rosewood  covered  with  black  broadcloth  and  very  heavi 
ly  mounted  with  silver.  A  drapery  of  black  covered  the 
casket  except  when  stops  were  made  at  the  several  sta 
tions,  when  the  doors  were  thrown  open  and  the  casket 
was  exposed  to  public  view,  guarded  by  the  colored  sen 
tinels  who  had  it  in  charge.  Behind  the  baggage-car, 


DEMONSTRATIONS   OF   RESPECT  AND   GRIEF.  525 

two  drawing-room  cars  contained  the  mourners,  and  all 
was  attached  to  the  rear  of  the  fast  train  from  New 
York  City.  The  depots  on  the  line  were  hung  in  mourn 
ing,  and  flags  \vere  at  half-mast. 

All  along  on  its  mournful  way,  the  funeral  train  was 
greeted  by  demonstrations  of  respect  and  grief.  At  every 
village  and  station  silent  crowds  stood  waiting  for  it  to 
come  and  pass,  while  at  New  Haven,  and  other  cities,  the 
whole  population  seemed  to  pour  out  to  pay  their  last 
tribute  to  the  dust  of  the  great  Statesman.  At  Spring 
field,  Mr.  HAYES,  with  the  Committee  of  the  Massachu 
setts  Legislature,  appeared,  and  thus  addressed  Senator 
ANTHONY:  Gentlemen  of  the  Congressional  Committee, 

o 

the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  has  charged  us  with  the 
duty  of  waiting  upon  you  and  receiving  the  remains  of 
our  beloved  Senator.  Permit  me  to  conduct  you  and  the 
members  of  the  Massachusetts  delegation  in  Congress, 
and  the  honored  guests  of  the  State  to  its  Capitol,  when 
it  shall  please  you  to  continue  your  journey. 

Senator  Anthony  replied  to  the  address  of  Hon.  Mr. 
Hayes,  thanking  the  committee  for  the  reception  and 
for  the  sympathy  expressed,  and  their  union  in  the  dis 
charge  of  the  sad  duty  imposed  upon  them. 

For  many  miles  before  reaching  its  destination  the 
cars  seemed  to  be  passing  through  walls  of  mourning 
people,  over  which  waved  in  sadness  the  draped  national 
emblem.  As  the  evening  shadows  lengthened,  and  the 
light  of  that  long  day  was  fading,  the  home  of  the  great 
departed  was  reached. 

IV. 

While  the  funeral  train  was  threading  the  valleys  of 
Massachusetts,  the  people  of  Boston  had  flocked  to 


526  PUBLIC   MEETING   IN   FANEUIL   HALL. 

Faneuil  Hall,  that  sacred  shrine  of  Liberty,  where  the 
heart  of  New  England  was  to  pour  out  its  last  plaint  of 
love  and  grief.  The  representative  of  the  New  York 
Herald — that  everywhere  present  photographer  of  the 
age — thus  describes  the  scene  : 

Never  since  the  old  Cradle  of  Liberty  was  dedicated  to  freedom  lias 
there  been  such  a  gathering  within  its  portals.  The  persons  making  up 
the  vast  concourse  assembled  seemed  as  if  each  had  lost  a  dear 
personal  friend.  Many  of  them  had  before  sat  in  this  old  historic  hall 
to  listen  to  his  eloquent  addresses,  and  now  they  were  gathered  to  pay 
a  sad  and  feeling  tribute  to  his  memory.  The  interior  of  the  venerable 
building  presented  a  solemn  and  funereal  aspect,  with  its  windows 
curtained  in  black,  shutting  out  the  light  of  day,  while  its  gas-jets 
burned  dimly  along  the  edge  of  the  balconies.  The  emblems  of  grief, 
blended  with  the  permanent  memorials  of  the  patriots  of  former  days 
and  the  statesmen  of  later  days,  imparted  to  the  hall  an  air  of  subdued 
mourning  in  consonance  with  the  feelings  of  the  community.  The 
historical  rostrum  was  heavily  draped  with  sombre  folds  and  festoons, 
as  was  the  great  painting  of  the  scene  in  the  Senate  Chamber  when  the 
Great  Defender  of  the  Constitution  replied  to  the  arrogant  South 
Carolinian.  The  facade  of  the  galleries  was  neatly  decorated  with 
festoons,  caught  up  at  the  columns  with  black  lappels  with  white 
borders.  Behind  this  extended  another  line  of  drapery  in  pure  black, 
and  above  it,  at  the  tops  of  the  gallery  pillars,  white  and  black  festoons 
alternated  on  either  side  of  the  hall.  The  cornice  over  the  gallery 
windows  was  similarly  adorned.  The  clock,  upon  the  front  gallery, 
was  entirely  hidden  by  a  life-like  portrait  of  Mr.  Simmer,  resting 
beneath  an  arch  bearing  the  name  "  Charles  Sumner,"  and  flanked 
with  tablets,  upon  which  were  inscribed  the  date  of  birth — "  February 
6,  1811" — and  decease — "March  n,  1874."  From  the  centre  of  the 
ceiling  radiated  long  strips  of  black  and  white  bunting  and  four 
American  flags.  Seats  were  arranged  on  either  side  of  the  platform 
for  the  accommodation  of  the  members  of  the  city  government  and 
others,  and  the  galleries  were  reserved  for  ladies.  All  the  rest  of  the 
hall  was  clear  and  open  to  the  general  public.  The  doors  were  open 
to  the  ladies  at  half-past  ten  o'clock,  at  which  hour  several  hundred, 
who  had  been  waiting  upwards  of  an  hour  in  the  bleak  wind  without, 
were  admitted  to  the  hall.  The  galleries  were  speedily  filled,  and 


HON.    JAMES   B.    SMITH'S   SPEECH.  527 

many  who  arrived  late  were  disappointed  in  not  finding  seats.  At  half- 
past  eleven  the  guards  which  had  been  stationed  at  the  approaches  to 
the  hall  were  drawn  in,  and  the  general  public  admitted.  In  fifteen 
minutes  after  the  public  were  allowed  to  enter,  every  seat  and  every 
available  standing  place  in  the  hall  were  occupied,  and  a  sea  of 
saddened  upturned  faces  greeted  the  distinguished  gentlemen  who  as 
sembled  on  the  platform. 

V. 

For  hours  the  eloquence  of  Massachusetts,  chastened 
by  the  solemnity  of  the  occasion,  consecrated  the  scene. 
Hon.  Alex.  H.  Rice,  Gen.  N.  P.  Banks,  Mr.  Gaston,  the 
Democratic  Mayor,  Edward  Everett  Hale,  Richard  H. 
Dana,  and  other  eminent  men  spoke.  But  perhaps  the 
most  affecting-  words  fell  from  the  trembling  lips  of  Hon. 
Jas.  B.  Smith,  member  of  the  Legislature  for  Cam 
bridge,  the  personal  friend  of  Mr.  SUMNER  :— 

Mr.  Mayor  and  Gentlemen :  I  would  not  appear  before  you  to-day 
to  say  a  word,  for  I  do  not  feel  able  to  do  it,  and  I  can  only  say,  Mas 
sachusetts  has  lost  a  Senator,  the  United  States  has  lost  a  statesman, 
the  world  has  lost  a  philanthropist,  and  I  have  lost  a  friend. 

I  would  not  trust  myself  out  here  before  you  to-day  except  but  for 
one  reason.  I  shook  Mr.  Simmer's  hand  for  the  last  time  last  Sunday 
evening,  at  half-past  eight  o'clock.  He  bade  me  say  to  the  people  of 
Massachusetts,  through  their  Legislature,  this :  "I  thank  them  for  re 
moving  that  stain  from  me  ;  I  thank  those  that  voted  for  me.  Tell 
those  that  voted  against  me  that  I  forgive  them  all,  for  I  know  if  they 
knew  my  heart  they  would  not  have  done  it.  I  knew  Massachusetts 
was  brave,  and  wanted  to  show  to  the  world  that  it  was  magnanimous, 
too,  and  that  was  my  reason  for  my  action." 

I  have  felt  that  the  greatest  tribute  that  I  could  pay  to  him  for  his 
kindness  to  me  was  simply  to  drop  a  tear  to  his  memory ;  but  our  hon 
ored  Mayor  was  kind  enough  to  bring  me  forth  to  show  you  the  fruits 
of  his  labor. 

I  can  go  back  to  the  time  when  I  sat  under  the  eagle  in  this  hall  and 
when  I  saw  some  one  stand  on  this  platform,  and  I  did  wish  when  I 


528  FEELING  IN  THE   ASSEMBLY. 

heard  certain  expressions  that  I  could  sink.  I  can  go  back  to  my  boy. 
hood,  when  I  have  seen  other  boys  in  their  sports  and  plays,  and  I 
would  walk  off  in  the  woods  and  say,  "Oh  God,  why  was  I  born." 

I  can  remember  forty-five  years  ago,  on  a  Christmas  Day,  passing 
through  the  orchard  and  saw  a  silk-worm  hanging  to  the  leaf  of  a  tree, 
when  my  eyes  turned  up  to  my  God,  and  I  said,  "Why  am  1  here  ?" 
There  hangs  something  out  of  the  cold,  but  it  will  be  a  butterfly.  I 
took  it  home,  hung  it  in  the  room,  put  it  where  it  was  warm,  and  it 
hatched  out  before  the  atmosphere  was  prepared  to  receive  it.  I  lifted 
the  window  and  it  flew  off,  but  had  to  return,  as  it  could  not  stand  the 
atmosphere.  And  just  so  was  I  brought  forth  by  the  eloquence  of 
Charles  Sumner,  and  I  have  been  turned  loose  on  the  public  atmos- 
phera,  for  really  I  had  to  suffer  intensely ;  and  I  could  only  feel  at 
home  and  feel  well  when  I  turned  back  into  his  presence,  and  his  arms 
were  always  open  to  receive  me.  (Applause.) 

And  now,  Mr.  Mayor,  our  ship  in  which  he  has  commanded  is  still 
adrift.  We  are  standing  out  now  in  the  open  sea,  with  a  great  storm, 
and  in  behalf  of  those  five  millions  of  people  of  the  United  States,  I 
beg  of  you  to  give  us  a  good  man  to  take  hold  where  he  left  off. 
(Applause.) 

We  are  not  educated  up  to  that  point.  We  cannot  speak  for  our 
selves.  We  must  depend  upon  others.  We  stand  to-day  like  so  many 
little  children,  whose  parents  have  passed  away.  WTe  can  weep,  but  we 
don't  understand  it;  we  can  weep,  but  we  must  beg  of  you  to  give  us 
a  man  who  will  still  lead  us  forward  until  we  shall  have  accompanied  all 
those  thousands  for  which  he  offered  his  life. 

Mr.  Mayor,  I  thank  you  for  this.  I  have  appeared  in  Faneuil  Hall 
many  times.  If  I  was  only  able  to,  if  I  only  had  his  tongue,  if  I  could 
only  thank  him  for  what  he  has  done,  but  I  cannot ;  but  such  as  I  have 
I  give  him.  (Applause.)  Mr.  Mayor,  I  second  the  resolutions. 

Of  the  letter  read  from  Charles  Francis  Adams,  the 
Globe  said  : 

Last,  but  not  least,  the  tribute  of  such  a  conservative  statesman 
as  Charles  Francis  Adams  to  the  great  qualities  of  his  friend  and  asso 
ciate  of  many  years  was  worthy  of  the  historic  name  he  bears,  and 
makes  us  take  fresh  courage  when  we  think  of  what  virtues  still  dignify 
the  character  and  lives  of  some  of  our  public  men.  Sumner  lives  again 
in  these  eloquent  words  of  recognition  of  his  noble  services  and  life, 


CHARLES   FRANCIS   ADAMS'S   LETTER.  52Q 

and  the  memorial  that  is  suggested  in  the  resolutions  will  fitly  supple 
ment  the  monumental  career  that  he  has  left  for  our  example  and  guid 
ance.  This  memorial  will,  we  trust,  preserve  for  many  generations  the 
likeness  of  the  great  man  whose  mortal  remains  are,  to-day,  to  be  borne 
through  our  streets  and  laid  beneath  the  sods  of  Mount  Auburn. 

57  MOUNT  VERNON  STREET,  March  13,  1874. 
Richard  H.  Dana,  Jr.,  Esq. : 

MY  DEAR  MR.  DANA — I  regret  much  that  an  engagement  previously 
made  must  prevent  me  from  joining  you  in  the  proceedings  in  honor  of 
our  late  friend,  contemplated  to-morrow  in  Faneuil  Hall.  It  would 
have  given  me  a  mournful  satisfaction  to  contribute  my  mite  to  the  gen 
eral  testimony  borne  to  his  long  and  arduous  labors  in  the  country's 
service,  and  more  particularly  to  that  portion  of  them  with  which  you 
and  I  were  both  most  familiar.  It  is  now  nearly  thirty  years  since  we 
became  associated  in  the  prosecution  of  one  great  reform  in  the  polit 
ical  institutions  of  this  country.  It  is  more  than  twenty  since  Mr, 
Sumner  attained  a  position  that  enabled  him  the  most  fully  to  develop 
his  great  powers  to  the  attainment  of  that  end.  How  much  he  exerted 
himself  during  the  early  days  of  severe  trial,  and  how  deeply  he  suffered 
in  his  own  person  as  a  penalty  for  his  courageous  persistence  in  de 
nouncing  wrong,  the  public  know  too  well  to  need  further  illustration  at 
this  time.  Like  most  reformers,  he  possessed  that  species  of  ardor  and 
impetuosity  which  seems  almost  indispensable  to  rouse  the  sympathy 
and  secure  the  co-operation  of  the  great  and  controlling  masses  of  the 
people  of  a  republic,  in  the  difficult  work  of  changing  settled  convic 
tions  at  the  hazard  of  overturning  cherished  institutions.  The  trial  was 
a  very  costly  one,  we  all  admit,  but  when  we  look  to  see  how  it  has 
cleared  us  from  the  most  threatening  evils  that  weighed  upon  the  minds 
of  the  early  founders  of  the  Republic,  we  cannot  be  too  thankful  to 
each  and  all  of  the  intrepid  band  who  took  the  lead  in  the  work  of  reno 
vation,  and  persistently  carried  it  on  to  the  glorious  end.  Among  that 
number  the  name  of  Charles  Sumner  must  ever  remain  blazoned  in  the 
most  conspicuous  characters. 

To  the  attainment  of  this  great  end  two  qualities  were  indispensable 
— and  both  of  these  belonged  to  Mr.  Sumner.  One  of  them  was  firm 
ness,  which  insured  persistency  over  all  obstacles.  The  second  was 
personal  integrity,  unassailable  by  any  form  of  temptation,  however 
specious.  After  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  of  trial  there  is  not  a 
trace  left  of  the  power  of  any  temptation,  either  in  the  form  of  pecuni- 
34 


530  SENATOR  ANTHONY   DELIVERS   THE  BODY. 

ary  profit,  or  the  much  more  dangerous  one  of  management  for  place. 
He  was  pure  throughout — and  this  was  the  crowning  honor  of  his  great 

career. 

I  am  very  truly  yours, 

CHARLES  FRANCIS  ADAMS. 

VI. 

The  train  arrived  at  Boston  at  7  o'clock  in  the  even 
ing,  where  the  Committee  were  received  by  Mayor 
COBB,  when  the  coffin  was  placed  in  a  hearse  drawn  by 
four  horses,  escorted  by  a  mounted  Guard  of  Honor 
from  the  First  Battalion,  and  followed  by  a  long  Hne  of 
carriages,  and  an  immense  procession,  through  Lincoln, 
Sumner,  Winter,  Tremont,  and  Park  streets,  to  the  State 
House.  The  bells  of  the  city  were  all  tolling,  business 
was  suspended,  and  a  deep  gloom  had  settled  over  the 
old  town  which  had  given  birth  to  its  illustrious  but  now 
departed  son. 

The  casket  was  slowly  borne  up  the  steps  of  the  State 
House,  and  deposited  on  a  lofty  catafalque.  Forty  of 
the  Shaw  Guards,  under  Major  LEWIS  GAUL,  were  in 
charge  of  Doric  Hall,  where  the  catafalque  had  been 
placed.  Following  the  casket,  came  the  mourners, 
headed  by  Col.  W.  B.  STOKER,  who  introduced  Senator 
ANTHONY  to  Gov.  WASHBURN,  when  the  Senator  uttered 
these  grand,  but  chaste  and  appropriate  words : 

May  it  please  your  Excellency, — We  are  commanded  by  the  Senate 
of  the  United  States  to  render  back  to  you  your  illustrious  dead. 
Nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago  you  dedicated  to  the  public  service  a 
man  who  was  even  then  greatly  distinguished.  He  remained  in  it, 
quickening  its  patriotism,  informing  its  councils,  and  leading  in  its 
deliberations,  until,  having  survived  in  continuous  service  all  his  original 
associates,  he  has  closed  his  earthly  career.  With  reverent  hands  we 
bring  to  you  his  mortal  part,  that  it  may  be  committed  to  the  soil  of 
the  State,  already  renowned,  that  gave  him  birth.  Take  it ;  it  is  yours. 


FROM   HIS    RESIDENCE    TO   THE    CAPITOL. 


SATURDAY  NIGHT   OF  SILENCE  AND   GLOOM.  531 

The  part  which  we  do  not  return  to  you  is  not  wholly  yours  to  receive, 
nor  altogether  ours  to  give.  It  belongs  to  the  country,  to  mankind,  to 
freedom,  to  civilization,  to  humanity.  We  come  to  you  with  emblems 
of  mourning  which  faintly  typify  the  sorrow  that  dwells  in  the  breasts 
upon  which  they  lie.  So  much  is  due  to  the  infirmity  of  human  nature. 
But,  in  the  view  of  reason  and  philosophy,  is  it  not  rather  a  matter  of 
exultation,  that  a  life  so  pure  in  its  personal  qualities,  so  high  in  its 
public  aims,  so  fortunate  in  the  fruition  of  noble  effort,  has  closed 
safely  before  age  had  marred  its  intellectual  vigor,  before  time  had 
dimmed  the  lustre  of  its  genius  ! 

May  it  please  your  Excellency, — Our  mission  is  completed.  We 
commit  to  you  the  body  of  Charles  Simmer.  His  undying  fame  the 
muse  of  history  has  already  taken  in  her  keeping. 

The  Governor  tendered  to  the  Committee  the  thanks 
of  the  Commonwealth  for  the  tender  care  of  the  precious^ 
dust  of  its  Representative,  assuring  them  that  it  should 
ever  be  cherished  by  Massachusetts  as  among  its  most 
precious  treasures.  The  hospitalities  of  the  Common 
wealth  were  then  extended  to  the  Congressional  Com 
mittee,  who  were  escorted  to  the  Revere  House.  The 
crowd  then  retired  from  the  State  House,  the  iron  gates 
were  closed,  and  the  Capitol  of  Massachusetts  was  left 
to  a  night  of  silence  and  gloom. 

VII. 

From  the  columns  of  the  American  Traveler,  which 
among  all  the  able  journals  of  Boston,  gave  dignified 
and  touching  descriptions  of  the  scenes,  we  transfer  the 
following : 

From  nine  o'clock  Sunday  morning  until  a  very  late  hour  in  the  after 
noon,  there  were  at  no  time  less  than  five  thousand  people  in  Beacon 
Street,  opposite  the  State  House.  The  iron  gates,  guarded  by  State  and 
city  police,  were  thrown  open  at  fifteen  minutes  past  nine,  and  from 
that  hour  until  noon,  a  constant  stream  passed  through  the  State  House, 


532  DECORATIONS   OF  DORIC   HALL. 

finding  exit  at  the  door  on  Mount  Vernon  Street.  The  total  number 
was  at  least  thirty-five  thousand.  Doric  Hall  has  been  beautifully  de 
corated.  Around  the  cornices  are  festoons  of  black  and  white  cloth  ; 
each  festoon  is  looped  up  with  a  rosette,  with  pendent  drapery.  Over 
the  centre  entrance  and  over  the  arches  of  the  windows  are  heavy  drap 
eries,  and  the  alcoves  on  each  side  of  them  are  hung  with  black,  hand 
somely  looped.  In  the  rear  of  the  hall,  over  the  niche  where  the  statue 
of  Washington  stood,  are  black  cloth  curtains,  looped  up  from  the  centre, 
relieved  by  a  little  white  at  the  top,  and  in  front  of  this  a  shield  with 
Mr.  Stunner's  monogram.  On  each  side  of  these  curtains  and  next  the 
cannons  are  three  national  flags  draped.  The  bases  of  the  columns  in 
the  hall  are  draped  with  black,  as  are  the  tops  from  the  door  to  the  rear 
of  the  hall.  The  catafalque  is  covered  with  black  cloth  and  draped  with 
black  alpaca  with  white  fringe,  the  festoons  looped  up  with  large  black 
and  white  rosettes.  Mr.  Simmer's  monogram  is  placed  at  the  end  of 
the  structure  next  to  the  entrance  door,  sides  and  ends  are  festoons  of 
s*milax,  and  along  the  upper  edge  are  fixed  at  intervals  calla  lilies,  the 
blossoms  filled  with  violets,  and  surrounded  with  begonia  leaves  and 
ferns.  The  top  of  the  dais  is  strewn  with  a  variety  of  choice  flowers, 
including  roses,  violets,  and  carnations.  At  the  head  of  the  casket,  and 
resting  upon  the  catafalque,  stands  a  magnificent  cross  seven  feet  high, 
formed  of  calla  blossoms  and  leaves  of  the  calla  plant,  carnations,  vio 
lets,  spiral  japonicas,  azaleas,  and  stock  gilley.  The  foot  of  the  cross  is 
fixed  to  a  pedestal  covered  with  begonia  rex  and  calladicus  marantas. 
At  the  foot  of  the  casket  and  rising  from  the  marble  floor  stands  a  column 
of  flowers  emblematical  of  an  incomplete  life.  This  is  six  feet  high,  and 
is  formed  of  flowers  and  leaves  similar  to  those  composing  the  cross. 
Upon  the  top  of  the  broken  shaft,  which  is  thickly  studded  with  roses, 
rests  a  pall  of  violets,  and  the  base  is  covered  with  a  collection  of  choice 
foliage  and  exotics.  At  the  foot  and  on  one  side  of  the  casket  stands 
an  upright  anchor  of  roses  and  violets,  the  cable  of  which,  formed  of 
smilax  and  violets,  extends  along  the  upper  edge  and  forms  the  dressing 
of  the  casket.  This  is  shaded  with  roses  and  pinks.  On  the  other  side 
is  a  broken  lyre,  the  strings  of  which  are  formed  of  violets.  In  the  centre 
of  one  side  of  the  casket  is  placed  a  mound  of  rich  blossoms  and  on  the 
other  a  basket  of  flowers,  while  at  the  upper  corners  of  the  catafalque 
stand  two  small  crosses.  Festoons  of  smilax,  caught  up  at  the  handles, 
and  sago  palms  form  the  decoration  of  the  sides  of  the  casket,  on  the 
top  of  which  rests  a  large  bouquet  of  callas  and  other  choice  flowers  ; 
and  also  a  large  floral  heart,  the  offering  of  colored  citizens  of  Boston, 


THE   BODY   LYING   IN    STATE    IN   DORIC   HALL, 


CHASTE   SIMPLICITY   OF   BOSTON'S   TRIBUTES.  533 

with  the  following  inscription  :  "  From  the  colored  citizens  of  Boston. 
Charles  Simmer,  you  gave  us  your  life,  we  give  you  our  (hearts)."  A 
still  larger  floral  design,  the  gift  of  a  club  of  the  friends  of  Mr.  Simmer 
in  Brooklyn,  is  placed  on  the  top  of  the  dais  facing  the  main  entrance 
to  Doric  Hall,  and  bears  the  following  inscription  wrought  in  violets 
upon  a  bed  of  white  carnations  :  "  DON'T  LET  THE  CIVIL  RIGHTS  BILL 
FAIL."  Above  the  catafalque  is  suspended  a  crown  of  glory,  beneath 
which  floats  a  white  dove  in  full  flight,  holding  in  its  beak  an  olive 
branch.  In  front  of  the  alcove  in  which  stands  the  statue  of  Washing 
ton,  are  placed  three  pots  of  dutzia  graccilis  in  full  bloom,  and  in  front 
of  the  alcove  containing  the  marble  bust  of  Mr.  Sumner  is  displayed  a 
large  design  in  carnations,  immortelles,  and  violets,  with  which  latter 
blossom  was  wrought  the  motto  of  the  deceased  statesman,  "  EQUAL 
RIGHTS  TO  ALL." 

The  funeral  obsequies  were  conducted  with  that 
chaste  simplicity  which  always  characterizes  whatever 
tokens  of  respect  that  venerable  city  pays,  as  she  has  had 
such  frequent  occasions,  to  her  many  illustrious  sons.  A 
few  moments  before  the  doors  were  shut,  Mr.  GEORGE 
SEXXAT  placed  on  the  beautiful  monument  of  flowers  at 
the  foot  of  the  casket,  the  following  epitaph : 

Humanitas  Justitiaque 
Maerent    Et    Maerebunt 

Te 

Sumner  Justitue  Cultor  Eximius 
Justitia  Ob  Vitam  Purissima 

Inter  Sordiores 
Humanitas  Ut  Tibi  Nusquam 

Aliena 

Tu  Fine   Labor um 
Immortalis  Initio 

Gaudeas 

Tali  Morte 

Tale  Superstite  Nullo 

Felix  Faustus   Fortunatus 

Gloria  Resurgens 

Ave. 


534  CEREMONIES   AT   KING'S   CHAPEL. 

TRANSLATION. 

The  following  may  be  given  as  a  nearly  literal  translation  : 

Humanity  and  Justice 
Mourn  and  will  mourn 

Thee, 
O  Simmer,  most  renowned  Fosterer 

of  Justice  I 
Justice,  on  account  of  thy  most  pure  life 

Among  the  base ; 

Humanity,  in  that  she  never  was  a  stranger  to  Thee. 
Thou  rejoicest  in  the  end  of  labors  and  the  beginning  of  Immortality. 

O  Happy,  Blessed,  and  Fortunate  One, 

In  such  a  Death  that  none  like  Thee  remains. 

Rising  to  Glory, 

Hail! 

VIII. 

At  half-past  two,  the  procession  moved  to  King's 
Chapel.  On  entering,  preceding  the  Mayor  were  four 
men  who  bore  a  massive  cross  nine  feet  in  height,  com 
posed  of  calla  lilies,  camellias,  lilies  of  the  valley,  violets 
and  other  exotics.  At  the  base,  in  a  bed  of  white  violets, 
were  the  words :  "A  tribute  from  his  native  city  and 
home." 

Impressive  ceremonies  were  held.  After  the  response 
from  the  choir,  at  the  close  of  the  special  invocation— 
"  Almighty  and  ever-living  God,  we  fly  to  Thee  as  our 
eternal  refuge  ;  we  rest  ourselves  upon  Thee,  the  Rock 
of  ages,"  etc. — they  sang  MONTGOMERY'S  hymn,  "  Servant 
of  God,  well  done."  The  benediction  followed,  and 
the  services  closed  with  the  playing  of  the  funeral  march 
of  MENDELSSOHN  as  the  assemblage  moved  slowly  from 
the  church.  Of  the  grand  procession  to  Mount  Auburn, 
the  Daily  Globe  said  : 


THE   PROCESSION   TO   MOUNT   AUBURN.  535 

The  absence  of  any  great  military  or  civic  display  would  ha\  e  im 
pressed  an  intelligent  foreigner  as  a  strange  thing  in  a  funeral  ceremony 
of  a  great  public  character.  What  there  was  of  these,  however,  was 
eminently  appropriate  for  the  obsequies  of  the  great  Senator  whose  ef 
forts  in  the  cause  of  peace  were  so  well  supplemented  by  his  conflicts 
for  the  equality  of  human  rights.  The  chiefs  of  the  State  in  present 
and  in  former  years,  the  men  most  eminent  in  its  councils,  and  those 
who  stand  highest  in  intellect  and  culture,  bore  the  pall  of  the  most 
illustrious  representative  whom  Massachusetts  for  many  years  lias  had 
in  the  assembly  of  the  nation.  Behind  them  came  the  representatives 
of  the  dusk)7  race,  for  whom  Charles  Sumner  battled  and  suffered,  and 
in  whose  cause  he  laid  down  his  life.  No  gorgeous  display  of  military 
pomp  and  pride,  such  as  signalized  -the  obsequies  of  Napoleon,  or 
Wellington,  or  Nelson,  could  have  had  a  tithe  of  the  significance  of  the 
presence  of  these  representatives  of  an  enfranchised  race,  mourning 
the  loss  of  their  friend  and  benefactor. 

As  the  procession  passed  from  the  capitol,  in  whose  Doric  Hall,  hung 
with  the  torn  and  tattered  flags  of  the  conflict  in  which  he  was  a  mar 
tyr,  the  great  Senator  laid  in  state  on  his  return  to  deliver  up  the  trust 
confided  to  him  by  his  beloved  Commonwealth,  there  were  sad  yet 
glorious  memories  of  how  nobly  his  life-work  had  been  performed. 
The  old  stone  chapel,  with  its  associations  of  colonial  days,  received, 
with  fitting  tribute  of  honor  and  love,  the  mortal  remains  of  a  kinglier 
nature  than  any  with  which  its  historic  walls  were  ever  associated,  and 
the  dirge  of  the  band  without,  seemed  the  echo  to  the  waiting  populace 
of  the  solemn  music  that  pealed  through  the  venerable  edifice.  Fit 
ting  in  their  impressive  simplicity  were  these  funeral  services,  and  when 
the  tolling  bells  throughout  the  city  heralded  the  passage  of  the  pro 
cession  to  Mount  Auburn,  there  was  a  sad  significance  suggested  by 
the  places  through  which  it  passed.  By  the  fairest  and  the  stateliest 
abodes  of  the  city  of  his  birth,  whose  social  and  intellectual  attractions 
were,  though  so  highly  prized,  less  to  him  than  the  rights  of  the  hum 
blest  negro  ;  past  the  cherished  scenes  of  his  collegiate  life  and  legal 
study,  where  he  laid  the  foundations  of  the  scholarship  and  culture 
which  adorned  his  later  life,  the  mortal  remains  of  Charles  Surnner 
were  borne.  His  dear  alma  mater,  for  whom  he  had  a  scholar's  affec 
tion  and  a  filial  love,  may  well  have  sighed  as  all  that  was  mortal  of  her 
favorite  son  passed  by  her  to  the  tomb.  In  the  shades  of  Mount  Au 
burn,  he  sleeps  well ;  his  earthly  work  all  done,  his  meniory  a  precious 
legacy  to  the  people  of  the  city  of  his  birth,  to  the  State,  the  nation 


53^  LAST   SCENES   AT  THE   GRAVE. 

and  the  world,  and  his  example  a  needed  stimulus  to  carry  on  the  work 
which  he  so  worthily  began. 


IX. 


The  cortege  reached  the  SUMNER  burial  lot  just  as  the 
sun  was  going"  clown.  Reverently  and  by  tender  hands 
the  casket  was  placed  by  the  side  of  the  grave.  At  the 
foot  stood  RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON,  Dr.  HOLMES,  and 
Vice- President  WILSON,  and  around  them  gathered  the 
members  of  the  Washington  delegation.  At  the  head, 
was  a  beautiful  cross  of  ivy,  and  sheaves  of  ripened 
wheat,  with  spring  violets.  Outside  the  reserved  space, 
were  clustered  thousands  who  had  orathered  to  witness 

o 

this  scene  of  worship  and  love.  All  stood  bowed  and 
uncovered  when  the  brief  services  began.  After  Chap 
lain  SUNDERLAND  had  recited  the  Lord's  Prayer,  a  choir 
of  forty  gentlemen  from  the  Apollo  Club  sang  that  in 
imitable  ode  of  Horace,  Integer  vitce.  While  this  solemn 
music  was  rising,  two  ladies,  the  only  mourners  of  their 
sex  within  the  enclosure,  stepped  forward  and  placed 
upon  the  coffin,  already  laden  with  floral  tributes  of 
rarest  beauty,  an  exquisite  wreath,  and  a  cross. * 

Rev.  HENRY  W.  FOOTE  pronounced  the  words,  "  I 
heard  a  voice  from  Heaven  saying  unto  me,  Write  : — • 
From  henceforth  blessed  are  the  dead  who  die  in  the 
Lord,  for  so  saith  the  Spirit.  They  have  rested  from 
their  labors,  and  their  works  do  follow  them."  And  as 
the  dust  began  to  fall  upon  all  there  was  mortal  left  of 

*  A  request  was  received  from  Mrs.  Hastings,  Mr.  Sumner's  sister  in  San  Fran 
cisco,  asking  Miss  Maud  Howe,  daughter  of  Dr.  S.  G.  Howe,  to  have  prepared  for 
her  a  wreath  and  cross,  the  description  of  which  was  fully  given,  which  she  wished  to 
have  placed  on  the  Senator's  coffin  previously  to  burial.  The  order  was  tenderly  exe 
cuted  at  the  grave  in  Mount  Auburn. 


MOUNT   AUBURN. 


TRIBUTES   FROM   THE   BOSTON   PULPIT.  537 

the  great  sleeper,  the  bereaved  multitude  slowly  left  the 
City  of  the  Dead.  The  ashes  of  the  Statesman  had  at 
last  found  their  congenial  resting-place,  by  the  side  of 
those  of  his  beloved  mother. 

X. 

The  following  day  was  the  New  England  Sabbath, 
and  it  dawned  without  a  cloud.  All  things  betokened  the 
coming  spring.  "  In  every  sheltered  place,"  said  the 
Post,  "  the  grass  was  springing  fresh  and  green,  and 
the  birds  piped  merry  melodies  from  the  limbs  of  the 
budding  trees.  The  face  of  nature  was  gay,  but  many 
sad  hearts  were  abroad,  and  thousands  as  they  slowly 
made  their  way  to  the  various  places  of  worship,  thought 
of  departed  worth  and  genius  rather  than  of  the  glories 
of  the  natural  world.  In  almost  every  pulpit  of  the 
city,  words  were  spoken  in  eulogy  of  Mr.  Sumner." 

This  volume  could  not  contain  them  all.  The  pulpit 
of  the  Church  of  the  Disciples  was  tastefully  draped  in 
purple — in  this  case,  more  than  royal  mourning, — and 
on  the  table  stood  a  bust  of  SUMNER.  Not  venturing  to 
speak  at  length,  the  address  of  the  pastor,  JAMES  FREE 
MAN  CLARKE,  was  read.  From  it  we  take  a  few  pas 


sages  : 


The  friends  who  have  fought  by  his  side  during  long  years  when 
success  seemed  hopeless,  whose  little  barques  have  sailed  attendant 
on  his  and  partaken  the  same  gales ;  younger  men  who  have  chosen 
him  for  their  leader,  and  amid  the  thick  of  battle  pressed  on  where  they 
saw  his  white  plume  waving,  now  clasp  hands  in  silent  sympathy.  The 
colored  people,  whose  hearts  are  always  right,  though  their  heads  are 
often  wrong,  now  recognize  in  him  the  best  friend  their  race  have  ever 
had ;  a  friend  who  with  his  dying  breath  still  besought  that  equal  rights 
might  be  given  them.  Massachusetts,  disgraced  by  an  unauthorized 
act  of  one  of  her  Legislatures,  hastened  to  right  the  wrong  where  it  was 


538  JAMES   FREEMAN   CLARKE'S   DISCOURSE. 

given,  and  happily  her  voice  reached  him  in  the  Senate  Chamber  before 
he  left  it  forever.  Even  those  who  opposed  him  now  hasten  to  revise 
their  opinions  and  float  in  the  great  current  of  sympathy.  The  Ameri 
can  people  admire  smart  people,  but  this  event  has  shown  that  Charles 
Simmer  is  loved.  So  it  was  shown  that  the  people  loved  Abraham 
Lincoln  and  John  A.  Andrew,  and  they  were  men  of  the  same  type  of 
honesty,  sincerity,  and  conscience. 

He  was  unpopular  from  first  to  last.  He  loved  peace  with  all  his 
heart,  but  was  always  in  war.  He  loved  approbation,  but  never  bought 
it.  He  loved  the  good-will  of  men,  but  was  obliged  to  relinquish  it. 
He  loved  sunshine,  but  had  to  live  in  storms.  His  fidelity  to  principle 
cost  him  dearly. 

Abraham  Lincoln  and  Simmer  were  always  friends.  Difference  of 
opinion  never  estranged  them.  Many  disliked  Sumner  because  he 
always  kept  himself  on  that  upper  level  of  principle.  The  air  was  not 
suited  for  them  to  breathe.  He  would  not  come  down  to  the  more  com 
fortable  platform  of  party  expediency.  When  a  man  dies  whose  virtues 
have  created  hostility  there  often  comes  a  singular  reaction.  It  was  the 
case  with  Lincoln  when  the  nation  was  weeping  "  in  the  passion  of  an 
angry  grief,"  and  so  it  is  with  Charles  Sumner.  Death  removing  him 
from  our  outward  eye  enables  us  to  see  him  inwardly  and  truly.  Thus 
we  have  looked  at  a  mountain  and  only  seen  the  creeping  mists  and 
clouds  which  concealed  it.  So  when  the  west  wind  moved  the  air  the 
vapors  suddenly  were  dispersed  and  the  pure  snowy  summits  came  out 
in  sharp  outline  against  the  blue  sky.  Death  does  the  office  of  that 
cold  wind.  After  the  earthquake  and  fire  and  whirlwind  of  passionate 
and  godless  strife  have  passed,  death  comes  and  the  Lord  speaks  in  that 
still  small  voice. 

When  any  important  subject  came  up,  Sumner,  being  a  statesman 
and  not  a  mere  politician,  always  studied  it  in  the  light  of  history  and 
political  science,  without  reference  to  party  interests.  He  sought  to 
declare  the  truth.  The  country  is  in  peril  to-day  because  there  are  so 
few  statesmen  in  public  life.  He  believed  in  men  and  his  life  was 
devoted  to  the  service  of  his  fellow-men,  high  and  low,  rich  and  poor, 
white  and  black.  In  him  man  was  sacred.  During  all  the  long  contest 
wiih  slavery  his  voice  was  heard  like  a  trumpet  appealing  for  the  rights 
of  man.  He  stood  conspicuous  in  the  nation's  eye,  a  young  Apollo  "  In 
silent  majesty  of  stern  disdain,"  and  dreadful  was  the  clangor  of  his  sil 
ver  bow  as  he  shot  his  arrows  thick  and  fast  into  the  sophisms  used  by 
the  slave-holders  and  their  allies.  When  they  could  not  reply  by  argu 


THE   BLOODY    COAT..       CAPT.    JOHN    BROWN.  539 

ment  they  silenced  him  with  murderous  blows,  but  Simmer  did  as  much 
for  the  cause  of  freedom  by  his  suffering  as  he  had  done  by  his  speech. 
When  the  news  reached  Boston  of  that  assault,  a  meeting  was  hastily 
called.  The  men  who  ought  to  have  spoken  were  absent,  and,  said  Mr. 
Clarke,  I  remember  with  some  pleasure  that  I  had  the  opportunity  of 
speaking  first  in  Boston  against  that  cowardly,  brutal,  and  murderous 
assault.  But  many  a  man  who  did  not  raise  his  voice  in  public  at  that 
time  took  a  vow  of  hostility  in  his  heart  against  the  institution  which 
prompted  that  assassination. 

Once,  while  Mr.  Sumner  was  here  in  Boston,  still  suffering  from 
those  injuries,  I  called  at  his  house  in  Hancock  Street.  He  was  resting 
in  an  easy-chair,  and  with  him  were  three  gentlemen.  He  introduced 
them  to  me,  one  as  Captain  John  Brown,  of  Ossawattamie.  They  were 
speaking  of  this  assault  by  Preston  Brooks,  and  Mr.  Sumner  remarked  : 
"The  coat  I  had  on  at  that  time  is  in  that  closet.  The  collar  is  stiff 
with  blood.  You  can  see  it  if  you  please."  Captain  John  Brown  arose, 
went  to  the  closet,  slowly  opened  the  door,  carefully  took  down  the 
coat  and  looked  at  it  for  a  few  moments  with  the  reverence  with  which 
a  Roman  Catholic  regards  the  relics  of  a  saint.  Perhaps  the  sight 
caused  him  to  feel  a  still  deeper  horror  of  slavery,  and  to  take  a  stronger 
resolution  of  attacking  it  in  its  strongholds.  So  the  blood  of  martyrs  is 
the  seed  of  the  Church. 

Allusion  was  made  to  the  encouragement  that  Mr.  Sumner  took  when 
discouraged  and  unhappy  from  the  fear  that  his  work  was  done  forever 
after  the  assault,  by  reading  certain  lines  of  Milton,  of  which  he  was 
very  fond.  Milton  still  lives  in  his  great  example,  and  so  does  Sumner. 
Milton  stood  by  the  side  of  Sumner  in  that  dark  hour,  and  so  shall  Sum 
ner  inspire  and  awaken  other  souls  centuries  hence,  so  that  they  in  turn 
can  say,  "  I  have  fought  the  good  fight ;  I  have  finished  my  course  ;  I 
have  kept  the  faith."  He  then  spoke  of  Mr.  Sumner' s  visit  to  a  Wednes 
day  evening  meeting  at  this  church,  and  how  his  heart  went  out  to  the 
young  people  there,  and  what  a  happy  evening  it  was.  Nothing  could 
be  more  modest,  genial  and  friendly  than  were  his  words  and  conversa 
tion  at  that  time.  A  happy  smile  was  on  his  face  all  the  evening,  and  I 
could  not  but  fancy  that  he  felt  more  at  home  among  those  youthful 
admirers  than  in  the  Senate  chamber  or  among  his  political  associates. 
It  is  a  pleasant  memory  to  carry  in  our  hearts. 

Few  of  the  ten  thousand  pulpits  of  New  England  but 
paid  tributes  to  the  virtues  of  the  deceased  Statesman. 


540  THE   REPUBLIC   IN   MOURNING. 


XI. 

It  were  vain  to  attempt  any  adequate  description  of 
the  tokens  of  respect  and  sorrow  which  were  displayed 
throughout  the  country.  The  funeral  bells  went  tolling 
with  the  sun  in  its  circuit,  from  noon-day  on  the  Atlantic 
to  the  noon-day  of  the  Pacific,  the  two  oceans'  bounda 
ries  of  a  continent  stricken  by  a  common  grief. 

Memorial  meetings  were  held  in  every  State  and 
Territory  of  the  Union  ;  everywhere,  Morse's  lightning 
had  made  it  a  funeral-day  in  America. 

A  hundred  thousand  flags  drooped  to  his  memory  :— 
he  was  the  theme  of  eulogy  in  ten  thousand  Universities, 
and  schools  of  learning  : — his  praises  were  uttered  over 
countless  work-benches,  and  among  diversified  scenes  of 
honest  toil  : — the  plough  halted  in  the  furrow  of  a  million 
upturning  fields : — the  incense  of  prayer  for  the  repose 
of  his  gentle  spirit,  witnessed  only  by  guardian  angels, 
went  up  from  myriads  of  closets  : — his  pictures  were 
wreathed  in  mourning  in  the  humble  cabins  of  innume 
rable  homes  of  his  dusky  worshippers  : — -young  mothers 
pressed  his  name  on  the  foreheads  of  new-born  babes  : 
—the  news  of  his  death  cast  a  shadow  over  many  a 
bridal  morning,  and  folded  the  wings  of  love  around  many 
a  scene  of  enchantment :  the  old  sank  tremblingly  into 
their  easy-chairs,  as  they  heaved  one  of  their  latest  sighs 
to  his  cherished  memory ;  and  the  dying,  with  the  last 
praises  of  earth,  thanked  the  God  of  Liberty  that  its 
great  champion  had  lived.  And  so,  from  the  frozen 
gates  of  our  Republic  on  the  North,  where  the  brooks 
had  not  yet  begun  to  murmur,  down  to  meet  the  blush 
ing  spring  in  its  coming,  till  it  reached  the  orange -groves 
of  Florida,  one  wave  of  sorrow  swept  its  gentle  way  : — • 


HIS   WORK   WAS    COMPLETE.  541 

while  under  the  oceans,  the  sad  news  was  flashing-  to 
distant  nations.  There  was  not  a  clime  where  the  tribute 
of  tears  was  not  paid  to  him.  It  was  one  of  those  few 
funeral  days  in  which  the  obsequies  of  a  great  philan 
thropist  were  held  within  twenty-four  hours,  all  round 
the  globe.  He  was  the  friend  of  Humanity,  and  Hu 
manity  wept  when  he  was  no  more. 

XII. 

But  the  deepest  grief  was  in  the  hearts  of  the  children 
of  Africa,  for  whose  redemption  he  had  lived  and  died. 
Never  again  were  they  to  have  such  a  friend ;  and, 
blessed  be  God  !  the  day  had  gone  by  when  they  would 
ever  need  another  like  him. 

It  wras,  then,  after  all,  a  vain  and  needless  regret  of 
SUMNER,  in  his  last  hours,  that  his  WORK  was  not  done. 
It  was  done.  The  immolation  was  perfected — HIS  WORK 

WAS    COMPLETE.* 

A  few  brief  passages  more  must  be  entwined  into  the 
final  wreath  we  lay  over  his  ashes. 

The  Boston  Daily  Advertiser  draws  the  parallel 
between  the  American  Senator  and  Edmund  Burke. 

Mr.  Simmer  will  hold  some  such  place  in  history  as  that  which 
belongs  to  Edmund  Burke,  who  is  as  well  known  to  our  times,  though 
he  has  been  in  his  grave  almost  fourscore  years,  as  he  was  to  his  con 
temporaries, — and  there  is  every  reason  for  supposing  that  he  will  be 
just  as  well  known  in  future  centuries  as  he  is  known  to  the  nineteenth 
century.  Burke  was  in  Parliament  about  twenty-eight  years.  He  held 
office — and  never  high  office — only  about  a  year.  He  belonged  to  the 
opposition  throughout  most  of  his  public  life.  He  was  never  popular 
in  the  House  of  Commons.  Often  he  spoke  to  empty  benches,  and 

*  It  is  most  earnestly  to  be  hoped  that  before  it  be  too  late,  some  one  qualified 
for  the  labor  shall  have  commenced  the  collection  of  TRIBUTES  PAID  TO  CHARLES 
SUMNER  by  the  Pulpit,  the  Press,  the  Memorial  Meetings,  and  by  individuals  every 
where.  With  the  exception  of  LINCOLN'S,  such  a  collection  would  be  unrivalled  in 
magnitude  and  veneration  by  any  that  could  have  been^made  for  any  other  man  who 
has  in  our  times  lived  on  this  continent, — perhaps  in  the  world. 


542  CHARLES   SUMNER  AND   EDMUND   BURKE. 

not  imfrequently  to  the  most  hostile  of  hearers.  He  became,  under  the 
workings  of  poverty  and  illness,  of  disappointments  and  insults,  one  of 
the  most  irritable  of  mankind.  He  indulged  in  savage  language  on 
occasions  that  even  the  most  factious  and  fractious  of  men  ordinarily 
have  allowed  to  control  their  imaginations  and  to  bridle  their  tongues. 
He  was,  for  most  of  his  public  life,  positively  odious  to  the  majority  of 
the  English  people.  Yet  he  was  the  ablest  man  of  his  time,  and  made 
the  ablest  speeches  that  ever  were  heard  in  the  British  Parliament. 
His  original  legislation  was  small,  nor  does  any  great  statute  owe  its 
existence  to  him.  But  he  connected  himself  and  his  history  by  the 
most  indissoluble  of  ties  with  a  number  of  the  greatest  subjects  that  ever 
were  discussed  and  debated  by  man  :  with  the  contest  between  England 
and  her  American  Colonies  ;  with  Catholic  Emancipation  ;  with  the 
Trial  of  Warren  Hastings,  and  generally  with  all  East  Indian  affairs  ; 
with  the  French  Revolution, — and  with  other  matters  ; — and  the  dozen 
volumes  which  contain  his  writings  and  speeches  belong  to  the  very 
first  rank  of  British  political  and  historical  literature,  and  they  are  read 
by  every  man  who  aspires  to  understand  history  and  politics.  Mr. 
Simmer,  like  Burke,  often  was  in  opposition  ;  like  Burke,  he  would  not 
be  governed  by  his  party  when  he  thought  that  party  was  in  the  wrong  ; 
like  Burke,  his  sympathies  were  with  the  oppressed,  and  he  would  labor 
hard  for  men  whom  he  never  could  expect  to  see,  and  many  of  whom 
never  could  hear  of  him  ;  and,  like  Burke,  his  works  make  his  best 
monument,  and  are  integral  parts  of  the  history  of  his  country  and  his 
age.  Finally,  as  he  resembled  Burke  in  the  character  of  his  labors,  and 
in  his  readiness  to  be  the  champion  of  the  wronged  and  the  oppressed, 
so  will  he  resemble  him  in  the  circumstance  that  his  fame  will  be  the 
greater  as  it  is  removed  from  the  mists  of  contemporary  calumny  and 
detraction ;  and  the  true  proportions  of  his  character  will  stand  out 
clearly  before  men  when  "  the  dead  grow  visible  from  the  shades  of 
time." 

XIII. 

Among"  the  most  eloquent  of  tributes  from  the  pulpit 
was  the  one  which  fell  from  Rev.  Dr.  E.  H.  CIIAPIX, 
whose  lips  when  speaking  in  behalf  of  humanity  always 
seem  to  be  touched  with  a  live  coal  from  the  celestial 
altar.  We  caught  but  a  single  flaming  passage  :— 

That  man,  the  announcement  of  whose  death  has  come  upon  us  so 
suddenly,  and  which  has  startled  us  like  the  vanishing  of  some  conspi- 


TRIBUTES   BY   CHAPIN   AND   FROTHINGHAM.  543 

cuous  landmark,  with  the  associations  of  the  most  exciting  period  of 
our  national  history  clinging  around  it,  was  one  in  whom  large  gifts  and 
rich  acquirements  were  fused  into  the  condensed  energy  and  solid 
splendor  of  moral  purpose.  He  has  died  in  his  harness,  with  the  dents 
of  many  conflicts  upon  his  shield,  and  the  serene  light  of  victory  on  his 
crest.  But  while  among  the  great  men  who  have  fallen  so  thickly 
around  us,  there  may  have  been  those  who  matched  him  in  ability,  and 
excelled  him  in  genius,  we  must  look  far  and  wide  through  our  land, 
and  through  our  age,  to  find  any  who  have  equalled  him  in  this  loyalty 
of  conviction, — this  sublime  tenacity  of  righteousness.  For  this,  as  he 
lies  to-day  in  the  Capitol  of  his  grand  old  State,  he  is  mourned  and 
honored.  For  this,  to-morrow,  the  overshadowing  regret  of  a  nation, 
and  the  tears  of  an  emancipated  race,  will  follow  to  the  grave  of 
CHARLES  SUMNER. 

Rev.  O.  B.  FROTHINGHAM — the  author  of  that  noble 
Biography  of  a  noble  life — Theodore  Parker's  : 

Charles  Sumner  was  a  statesman  who  knew  what  statesmanship  was 
meant  for.  He  kept  before  him  all  the  time  the  idea  of  the  State.  He 
did  not  wish  to  put  his  hand  into  the  treasury  ;  he  did  not  seek  or  ask 
to  be  sent  to  the  Senate  because  he  might  have  an  independent  for 
tune,  for  the  reputation  of  a  public  man,  complimented  and  flattered  by 
his  countrymen.  He  felt  himself  a  servant  of  the  public.  He  was  a 
man  who  carried  his  consciousness  so  far  that  he  seemed  to  be  vision 
ary,  a  man  who  so  perpetually  clung  to  the  ideal  that  men  said  he  was 
a  man  of  one  idea.  He  was.  He  believed  in  God  in  government. 
He  sometimes  erred;  of  course  he  did  ;  he  was  a  man.  He  cherished 
a  profound  and  personal  interest  in  the  ideal  of  law,  the  ideal  of  govern 
ment,  and  worked  to  bring  about  the  time,  if  it  ever  could  be  brought 
about,  when  war  should  cease  and  slavery  of  all  kinds  be  done  away 
and  the  different  conditions  of  men  equalized,  and  justice,  simple  jus 
tice,  should  be  done  to  the  smallest  man,  the  meanest  man  and  woman 
in  the  land,  and  that  these  privileges  should  be  extended  over  all  the 
earth.  That  was  Charles  Sumner.  He  was  a  man  who  had  the  heart 
of  a  little  child,  but  it  was  the  heart  of  a  little  child  of  God. 

Rev.  THEODORE  L.  CUYLER — 

Some  of  the  most  soul-stirring  eloquence  of  this  generation  came 
from  the  lips  of  Charles  Sumner.  His  utterances  commanded  a  willing 
ear  in  two  hemispheres.  He  must  be  regarded  as  the  impersonation  of 
patriotism.  No  soldier  ever  gave  his  life  more  willingly,  nor  did  his 


544  THE   MIRACLE   OF  THE  SLAVE  PICTURE. 

country  more  service  than  did  Charles  Sumner.  His  incorruptibility 
was  never  impeached.  No  one  ever  dared  offer  him  a  bribe.  He  was 
always  on  the  side  of  justice,  and  did  not  care  what  the  consequences 
might  be  ;  to  give  the  largest  freedom  to  every  man  of  every  color  was 
the  polar  star  on  Charles  Sumner' s  horizon  which  never  set.  The  type 
of  manhood  of  which  Charles  Sumner  was  a  representative,  is  growing 
scarcer  every  year.  When  his  body  was  taken  from  the  Senate  cham 
ber  last  Friday  he  did  not  leave  his  peer  behind  him.  He  stood  pre 
eminent  as  a  scholar,  as  a  statesman,  and  in  general  culture.  He  was 
a  fine  model  for  our  American  youth  to  emulate.  He  was  a  splendid 
example  for  the  advancement  of  those  principles  which  make  true 
patriots. 

The  genial  Washington  correspondent  of  Mr.  Beech- 
er's  Christian  Union— 

This  house  of  his  was  as  wonderful  and  as  curious  as  the  man  him 
self.  It  was  so  crowrded  with  all  things  rare  and  beautiful,  and  so  many 
of  them  bore  on  their  faces  or  carried  in  their  hands  a  story  they  seemed 
longing  to  tell,  that  he  must  have  little  of  feeling  or  culture  who  did  not 
find  the  very  walls  an  inspiration.  Over  the  mantel  in  his  dining-room, 
hung  the  painting  he  has  singled  out  from  the  rest  and  willed  to  his 
friend,  Mr.  Smith,  of  Boston.  It  is  called  "  The  Miracle  of  the  Slave." 
Mr.  Simmer's  owrn  words,  as  nearly  as  I  can  remember  them,  will  tell 
its  story  better  than  I  can.  Said  he,  at  a  breakfast  party  one  morning, 
"  I  suppose  that  picture,  or  its  original,  did  more  than  any  one  thing 
toward  my  first  election.  I  saw  it  first  on  my  first  trip  to  Europe,  but 
it  made  no  great  impression  on  me.  Still  the  picture  remained  in  my 
mind,  though  I  thought  no  more  about  it.  When  I  wras  a  candidate  for 
the  Senate,  they  wanted  me  to  speak  in  Faneuil  Hall,  and  at  last  they 
persuaded  me  to.  It  was  at  the  time  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  excitement 
in  Boston,  and  while  I  was  speaking  I  remembered  that  picture.  So  I 
said  to  the  audience  :  '  There  is  in  Venice  a  picture  of  a  slave  brought 
before  the  judge  to  be  remanded  to  his  owner.  On  the  one  side  are  the 
soldiers  who  have  brought  him  there,  on  the  other  the  men  from  whom  he 
has  fled.  Just  as  the  judge  is  about  to  give  him  back  to  their  tyranny, 
St.  Mark  appears  from  the  heavens  and  strikes  off  the  fetters  from  the 
hands  and  feet  of  the  trembling  man.  So,  if  ever  Massachusetts 
remands  to  his  master  a  slave  who  has  sought  protection  in  her  borders, 
I  pray  God  that  the  holy  angels  may  themselves  appear  and  strike  the 
fetters  from  his  hands  and  feet.'  The  next  time  I  went  to  Venice,  in 
rummaging  around  the  print-shops,  I  found  this  picture,  and  was  told 


HIS   CHARACTER   BY  BEECHER.  545 

that  it  was  either  a  very  old  copy,  or  possibly  the  original  sketch  from 
which  Tintoretto  painted  the  larger  picture.  I  determined  to  have  it  at 
any  price,  and  before  I  left  the  shop  it  belonged  to  me." 

And  of  him  Mr.  BEECHER  himself  said,  in  one  of  his 
glowing  discourses — 

The  greatest  gift  of  God  to  a  nation  is  upright  men  for  magistrates, 
statesmen,  and  rulers.  That  republic  is  poor,  although  every  wind  may 
waft  to  it  the  richest  stores,  that  is  not  governed  by  noble  men.  Signs 
of  Government  decay  show  themselves  sooner  than  anywhere  else  in 
the  men  who  govern.  When  rulers  seek  the  furtherance  of  their  own 
ends,  when  laws  and  the  whole  framework  of  Government  are  only  so 
many  instruments  of  wrong,  the  nation  cannot  be  far  from  decadence. 

Simmer's  love  of  justice  and  truth  made  him  essentially  a  Democrat. 
Personally,  he  was  not  one,  but  he  became  one  in  the  times  in  which  he 
lived.  By  the  force  of  circumstances  he  became  the  leader  of  his  party. 
He  came  forward  at  the  time  when  Webster,  Choate,  and  Holt  were  the 
heroes — in  Massachusetts,  when  it  was  almost  worth  a  man's  life  to  say 
a  word  against  any  of  them.  Now,  how  is  it  ?  By  nature  Sumner  was 
endowed  with  a  manly  person,  of  an  admirable  cast  of  mind  ;  yet  he 
was  a  made-up  man.  He  fell  lately  from  the  blow  he  received  in  his 
earlier  career,  and  neither  Brown  nor  Lincoln  was  a  greater  martyr  for 
liberty  than  Charles  Simmer.  How  beautiful  to  die  so  !  The  club  that 
struck  him  was  better  than  knighting  him.  It  brought  him  to  honor 
and  immortality.  No  son  possesses  his  name.  No  child  shall  carry  it 
down  to  posterity.  He  is  cut  off  from  that.  But  the  State  of  Massa 
chusetts  shall  carve  his  name  so  deep  that  no  hand  can  rub  it  out.  No 
son  or  daughter  wept  at  his  bier,  but  down  a  million  dusky  cheeks  the 
tears  stream  ;  and  they  feel  that  a  father  and  protector  has  gone  from 
among  them,  and  I  would  rather  have  the  honor  of  the  smitten  than  the 
honor  of  the  high.  He  joined  himself  to  the  best  things  of  his  time,  and 
now  he  is  with  God.  Nothing  can  speak  better  for  his  principles  than 
the  fact  that  corrupt  men  dared  not  approach  him.  He  made  this  re 
mark  to  me  once  :  "  People  think  Washington  such  a  corrupt  place, 
but  I  don't  believe  a  word  of  it;  I  have  lived  here  a  long  time,  and  I 
have  never  seen  any  of  it !  "  And  he  never  did.  His  was  not  a  bellig 
erent  statesmanship.  He  was  an  advocate  for  peace,  although  he  de 
manded  justice.  Everywhere  his  views  were  against  violence,  and  his 
preference  for  peace  based  upon  justice,  and  for  the  defence  of  the  poor 
and  the  needy.  He  was  a  statesman,  indeed,  and  the  more  to  be  hon 
ored  because  his  tastes  did  not  lead  him  to  the  common  people.  His 
35 


54-6  TRIBUTES   BY   PUTNAM   AND   TALMAGE. 

was  an  example  of  personal  integrity,  much  misunderstood — partly  from 
his  own  fault,  and  partly  from  circumstances.  All  the  gathered  treasures 
of  ages  were  his,  and  these  he  employed  to  build  better  huts  for  the 
lowly.  No  man  has  surpassed  him  in  his  service  to  the  poor  and  the 
needy.  When  any  disability  has  been  removed,  every  poor  and  honest 
man  will  be  made  to  participate  in  the  bounty  he  gave  his  life  to 
preserve. 

Rev.  A.  P.  PUTNAM— 

His  only  feeling  toward  those  who  had  wronged  him  was  that  of  for 
giveness  and  pity  ;  his  noble  effort  at  extending  the  olive  branch  of  peace 
by  proposing  in  Congress  that  the  names  of  battles  with  fellow-citizens 
should  not  be  continued  on  the  Army  Register,  or  placed  on  the  regi 
mental  colors  of  the  United  States,  "perhaps,"  said  the  speaker,  "the 
purest  and  most  beautiful  act  which  Mr.  Su inner  ever  performed,  and 
one  which  will  be  more  and  more  remembered  to  his  honor  and  glory 
in  all  the  hereafter.  Massachusetts  and  the  vote  of  censure  regarding 
the  measure  was  here  touched  upon  in  the  following  words  :  "  Dear 
Old  Massachusetts !  how  could  she  have  been  betrayed  into  conduct 
like  that  ?  Bitterly  indeed  will  she  rue  the  day  when  she  discarded  her 
chivalrous  leader  of.  years  ago,  and  sold  herself  to  one  who  really  never 
knew  her  or  loved,  and  who  now,  from  his  exalted  seat  of  power  and 
patronage,  rewards  her  devotion  by  appointments  which  are  an  insult, 
and  by  tyranny  which  a  free  people  will  not  long  bear.  The  State  will 
yet  right  itself.  Her  heart  has  soundness  in  it  still,  and  in  that  better 
time  which  is  to  come,  she  will  revere  Charles  Sumner  as  the  noblest 
of  all  her' sons. 

Rev.  T.  DE  WITT  TALMAGE— 

We  have  never  had  a  better  lesson  concerning  the  hollowness  and 
uncertainty  of  worldly  honors  than  we  have  had  in  the  life  and  death  of 
Charles  Sumner.  Now  the  land  uncovers  its  head  as  a  silent  body  goes 
through  to  its  burial-place.  Independence  Hall  is  offered  for  the 
reception  of  the  remains.  The  flags  are  at  half-mast.  Funeral 
eulogiums  are  sounded  through  the  land,  and  the  minute  guns  on 
Boston  Common  throb,  now  that  his  heart  has  ceased  to  beat.  But 
while  he  lived,  how  pursued  he  was ;  how  maltreated,  how  censured  by 
legislative  resolutions,  how  caricatured  in  the  pictorials,  how  charged 
with  every  ambitious  and  impure  motive  !  his  domestic  life  assailed, 
and  all  the  urns  of  scorn,  and  hatred,  and  billingsgate  and  falsehood 
emptied  on  his  head !  And  when  Brooks'  club  struck  him  down  in 
the  Senate  Chamber,  there  were  hundreds  of  thousands  to  cry,  "  Good 


DISCOURSES   BY  HAZEN  AND   MACARTHUR.  547 

for  him — served  him  right ! "  When  the  speaker  saw  such  a  man  as 
Charles  Sumner,  pursued  for  a  lifetime  by  all  the  hounds  of  the 
political  kennels,  buried  under  a  mountain  of  flowers  and  amid  a  great 
national  requiem,  he  saw  what  a  hypocritical  thing  was  human  favor  ! 
We  take  a  quarter  of  a  century  in  trying  to  pull  down  his  fame,  and  the 
next  quarter  of  a  century  in  attempting  to  build  his  monument.  Either 
we  were  wrong  then,  or  are  wrong  now. 

Rev.  E.  O.  HAZEN— 

In  culture  and  in  acquaintance  with  the  works  of  the  past  and  with 
the  men  of  the  past  he  stood,  perhaps,  without  a  peer  in  this  country ; 
but  his  great  characteristic  was  fidelity  to  what  he  believed  to  be  right. 
Early  he  came  to  the  conclusion  that  his  great  nation  possessed  a  pure, 
healthy  constitution,  and  that  the  greatest  evil  under  which  the  nation 
suffered  was  exceptional ;  that  it  was  not  an  integral  part  of  our 
political  economy,  and  that  properly  worked,  our  nation  could  cast  out 
that  evil  without  a  revolution  and  without  any  radical  change  in  its 
organic  character  ;  and  he  resolved  that  his  life  should  be  devoted  to 
that  work  ;  and  he  was  successful.  Had  there  not  been  some  men  to 
do  the  work  of  Charles  Sumner,  there  never  would  have  been  the  call 
for  such  a  man  as  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  never  would  this  great  work 
have  been  wrought  out.  Though  he  was  not  seemingly  endowed  with 
that  wondrous,  strange,  magnetic  power  that  calls  out  the  love  of 
individuals  for  himself  in  an  extraordinary  degree,  he  will  be  followed 
to  his  grave  especially  with  the  tears  of  that  race  which  he  was  the 
instrument  in  the  hands  of  God  so  greatly  of  blessing. 

Rev.  Dr.  MACARTHUR,  Colored  Baptist  Church,  New 
York- 

We  shall  not  again  see  another  Sumner  in  our  halls  of  legislation. 
The  school  to  which  he  belonged  is  a  thing  of  the  past.  We  have  men 
now  of  a  narrower  gauge,  a  lower  tone  and  a  feebler  grasp  ;  men  who 
may  be  sharp  and  shrewd,  but  who  certainly  are  not  broad,  compre 
hensive  and  scholarly.  The  princely  form  of  the  great  Senator  we  shall 
see  no  more  ;  the  fine,  full,  melodious  voice  is  silent  forever.  One 
day  he  is  in  his  place,  a  leader  and  king  among  men  ;  the  next  day  he 
is  numbered  among  the  dead.  One  day  Canon  Kingsley  speaks  loving 
words  with  him  in  Washington  ;  the  next  evening  Canon  Kingsley  in 
Brooklyn  speaks  loving  words  of  him,  and  mourns  him  dead.  He  has 
fallen  crowned  with  honor — an  apostle  of  liberty — a  martyr  of  freedom. 


548  THE  LOUISVILLE  COURIER-JOURNAL. 

The  spirit  of  barbarism  and  slavery  struck  him  down  18  years  ago.  He 
never  fully  recovered. 

There  is,  too,  among  some  of  us,  a  sort  of  idea,  that,  to  be  a  great 
man,  one  must  have  been  poor,  ignorant  and  somewhat  coarse.  We 
rejoice  that  the  genius  of  our  Government  is  such  that  men  coming 
from  the  lowest  place,  may  go  to  the  highest ;  but  we  must  not  forget 
that  poverty  and  ignorance  are  a  great  drawback,  and  that  when  men 
rise  from  these  conditions,  they  rise  in  spite  of  these  hindrances,  and 
not  because  of  them.  Mr.  Simmer's  life  from  first  to  last  was  along  a 
different  line.  He  was  born  to  position  and  wealth.  He  was  born 
heir  to  a  glorious  inheritance.  He  was  born  of  ancestors  who  were 
scholars,  gentlemen,  Christians.  He  received  a  fine  body,  a  glorious 
intellect,  and  a  noble  heart.  His  leisure  and  his  wealth  might  have 
been  a  curse  to  him ;  they  might  have  taken  away  from  him,  as  from 
many  others,  all  ambition  and  desire  for  scholarship  and  promotion. 
They,  however,  quickened  the  desire  for  both,  as  they  furnished  the 
opportunity  for  the  attainment  of  either. 

He  was  just  such  a  man  as  we  can  least  afford  to  lose.  American 
society  and  political  life  have  too  few  such  men.  Who  can  take  the 
place  which  Charles  Simmer  filled  ?  The  great  principles  of  the 
science  of  political  economy  are  not  studied,  far  less  understood, 
by  the  majority  of  our  public  men.  The  days  of  scholars  and  thinkers 
of  the  higher  order,  the  days  of  Seward,  Chase,  and  Sumner,  seem  to 
be  numbered.  A  species  of  rowdyism,  Butlerism,  with  an  obliquity  of 
moral  vision  which  looks  past  the  right,  and  mistakes  success  for  honest 
ability,  is  imminent  and  greatly  to  be  dreaded.  A  radical  reform  is 
needed  here.  Precisely  here  is  Mr.  Simmer's  life  peculiarly  valuable. 
We  need  to  learn  the  necessity  of  patient  and  untiring  perseverance, 
if  we  are  to  accomplish  great  things  for  God  or  man. 

The  Louisville  Courier- Journal,  in  a  long  and  feeling 
notice,  says- 
Fifteen  years  ago,  the  news  that  Charles  Surnner  was  dead,  would 
have  been  received  with  something  like  rejoicing  by  the  people  of  the 
South  ;  ten  years  ago  they  would  have  hailed  it  as  a  message  from  Hea 
ven,  telling  them  that  an  enemy  had  been  removed  from  the  face  of  the 
earth.  To-day,  they  will  read  it  regretfully,  and  their  comment  will  be, 
"  He  was  a  great  man,  he  was  an  honest  man ;  as  he  has  forgiven  us, 
so  have  we  long  ago  forgiven  him." 


THE   CHICAGO   AND    CINCINNATI  PRESS.  54Q 

JOHN  G.  WHITTIER  to  a  personal  friend— 

The  dear  and  noble  Sumner !  My  heart  is  too  full  for  words,  and  in 
deepest  sympathy  of  sorrow  I  reach  out  my  hands  to  thee,  who  loved 
him  so  well.  He  has  died  as  he  wished  to,  at  his  post  of  duty,  and 
when  the  heart  of  his  beloved  Massachusetts  was  turned  towards  him 
with  more  than  the  old-time  love  and  reverence.  God's  peace  be  with 
him. 

The  Chicago  Times — 

The  death  of  Charles  Sumner  has  taken  away  another  of  the  very  few 
Americans  who  have  done  honor  to  the  name  of  statesmen.  There  is 
not  left  in  the  public  councils  his  equal  in  political  learning,  in  integrity, 
in  high  devotion  to  whatever  he  believed  to  be  right.  Though  untrusted 
by  time-serving  partisans,  he  stood  head  and  shoulders  above  them  all, 
both  in  intellectual  greatness,  and  in  devotion  to  principle. 

The  Chicago  Tribune — 

No  man  has  ever  graced  the  American  Senate,  who  will  be  remem 
bered  longer,  or  more  gratefully  than  he.  He  walked  on  a  higher  plane 
than  Mr.  Sevvard.  He  went  deeper  into  the  merits  of  the  anti-slavery 
cause  than  Mr.  Chase.  He  was  the  most  inflexible  man  of  his  time,  as 
well  as  the  most  polished  and  erudite  of  his  contemporaries.  His  in 
dustry  was  even  more  vast  than  his  learning.  His  personal  purity  was 
so  far  above  reproach  that  he  was  never  even  accused  of  dishonor. 

The  Chicago  Inter -Ocean — 

He  was  a  just  man,  pure  in  private  and  in  public  life.  His  faults 
were  transient,  and  his  virtues  constitute  a  permanent  legacy  to  the 
people  of  the  country  he  served  with  distinguished  ability  and  unsullied 
honor. 

The  Cincinnati  Commercial — 

Air.  Sumner  was  a  man  of  great  dignity  of  manner.  He  had  an  im 
posing  address,  a  leonine  head,  a  sonorous  voice.  To  the  scholar  he 
united  the  wisdom  of  the  sage,  and  to  the  reformer  the  discretion  of  the 
statesman. 

The  Cincinnati  Gazette — • 

Charles  Sumner  is  an  honor  to  the  American  name,  and  an  example 
for  future  generations  of  young  Americans  who  aspire  to  be  statesmen. 
He  has  shown  them  a  way  to  honor  and  fame  through  the  highest  paths 


55O  INDIANA,   MICHIGAN,    AND   OHIO. 

of  rectitude,  and  through  devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  oppressed  and 
down-trodden. 

The  Cincinnati  Times — 

He  goes  to  his  grave  with  a  character  unsullied  by  a  political  career 
of  thirty  years,  and  carrying  the  gratitude  of  a  nation,  and  the  worship 
of  a  race  freed  from  bondage,  and  elevated  to  the  rights  of  citizenship. 

The  Indianapolis  Journal— 

Had  he  been  free  from  faults  he  would  have  been  either  more  or  less 
than  human ;  but,  taking  him  for  all  in  all,  it  cannot  be  denied  that 
America  has  lost  one  of  her  greatest  men. 

The  Indianapolis  Sentinel — 

When  the  proper  time  comes,  and  the  story  is  adequately  told,  Charles 
Sumner  will  stand  as  the  type  of  the  noblest  American  of  his  genera 
tion — a  Washington  in  purity,  a  Luther  in  fervor,  a  Cromwell  in  persist 
ence  and  greatness  of  soul — a  man  beyond  the  loftiest  ideal  of  public 
virtue. 

The  Detroit  Free  Press — 

He  belonged  to  that  class  of  statesmen  who  were  governed  in  their 
action  by  their  ideas  of  what  was  just  and  right,  and  who  could  not  be 
moved  from  their  settled  convictions  by  any  considerations  of  policy  or 
expediency. 

The  Cleveland  Leader — 

His  death  leaves  a  vacancy  in  the  Senate  which  must  long  remain 
but  imperfectly  filled.  The  noble  services  of  his  life  so  far  overbalance 
his  errors,  that  men  of  all  parties  will  forget  his  faults,  and  join  sorrow 
fully  in  the  reverent  procession  which  will  follow  the  veteran  of  the 
Senate  to  his  grave. 

The  Cleveland  Herald — 

The  principal  objection  to  him  was  that  he  was  almost  all  intellect. 
Had  he  been  less  an  incarnation  of  intellectual  greatness,  and  possessed 
more  of  human  weakness,  he  would  have  been  less  isolated  from  the 
people  who  admired  his  learning,  but  sometimes  doubted  his  judgment. 

The  Buffalo  Commercial— 

Those  who  most  hotly  hated  Charles  Sumner  as  a  leader  in  the  sec 
tional  strife  which  culminated  in  civil  war,  will  surely  feel  their  animosi- 


PITTSBURG,   RICHMOND.      DR.    GARNET.  551 

ties  soften  when  they  remember,  that  it  was  his  noble  effort  to  heal  the 
wounds  of  that  war,  and  blot  out  its  melancholy  traces,  which  brought 
upon  him  the  censure  of  his  own  State.  For  Massachusetts  also,  this 
fact  will  not  be  without  instructive  suggestion. 

The  Pittsburg  Despatch — 

Whatever  political  prejudices  occasionally  existed  against  him,  he 
was  undoubtedly  the  highest  and  most  commendable  type  of  American 
statesmen.  Intelligent,  generous-hearted,  of  refined  sensibilities,  he 
expressed  the  clear  truth  as  he  saw  it  without  regard  for  opposition. 
He  was  a  man  who  could  not  intentionally  be  guilty  of  meanness,  and 
who  was  above  intrigue. 

The  Pittsburg  Chronicle — 

Brave,  in  days  when  it  took  bravery  of  the  most  lofty  kind,  to  be  the 
advocate  of  a  lowly  and  down-trodden  race,  Simmer  will  live  in  the 
memory  of  all  as  a  man  of  the  most  conspicuous  mark. 

The  Richmond  Journal — - 

The  sudden  passing  away  of  this  profound  scholar  and  statesman  will 
cause  a  deep  feeling  of  sorrow  to  pervade  the  breasts  of  his  many 
friends  both  in  this  country  and  Europe. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  H.  H.  GARNET,  the  eloquent  pastor  of 
the  Colored  Presbyterian  Church  of  New  York — him 
self  a  fugitive  from  Slavery  in  his  boyhood — delivered  a 
touching  and  beautiful  address  at  the  great  Colored 
meeting,  at  Cooper  Institute  : 

He  did  not  know  to  what  religious  creed  Mr.  Sumner  belonged,  nor 
need  we  inquire  concerning  a  man  whose  faith  and  life-work  are  so 
clearly  exhibited  ;  but  he  did  know  that  the  self-sacrificing  spirit  that 
was  in  Christ,  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  and  the  broad  humanity  of  the 
Gospel,  were  as  clearly  illustrated  in  his  life  and  public  services,  as  in 
those  of  any  other  man  he  ever  knew.  The  great  and  illustrious  states 
man  literally  resisted  oppression  of  every  form — even  unto  blood ;  and 
he  laid  down  his  life  for  his  brethren.  The  old  Anti-Slavery  leaders  are 
fast  passing  away.  Chase  and  Stanton  are  gone,  and  John  Brown  and 
Lincoln  are  in  their  tombs  ;  and  to-morrow  the  mortal  remains  of  Sum 
ner  will  be  laid  in  their  last  resting-place.  But  the  principles  of  liberty 


552  SUMNER'S  LETTER  ABOUT  BATTLE-FLAGS. 

are  imperishable.  The  people  of  Massachusetts  would  doubtless  rear 
a  fitting  tomb  to  his  memory,  and  other  States  would  vie  with  them  in 
doing  honor  to  his  noble  deeds  ;  but  there  was  one  class  of  American 
citizens  who  had  written  his  name  on  the  living  monuments  of  their 
hearts.  He  meant  that  class  for  whose  welfare  he  labored,  suffered, 
and  died.  In  the  language  of  his  life-long  friend,  John  Greenleaf 
\Vhittier,  those  millions  recently  crowned  with  the  blessings  of  liberty 
and  enfranchisement,  as  they  shall  think  of  their  departed  friend,  they 
will  say  : — 

"  We'll  think  of  thee,  O  brother  ! 
And  thy  sainted  name  shall  be 
In  the  blessings  of  the  captive, 
And  the  anthems  of  the  free." 

The  Springfield  Republican,  of  Springfield,  Mass., 
that  able  and  always  illuminated  journal,  in  a  memorial 
issue  devoted  chiefly  to  Mr.  SUMNER,  prints  a  letter  from 
him  to  a  personal  friend,  dated  March  20,  1873,  in  which, 
after  alluding"  to  his  sickness,  which  he  says  "goes  back 
in  its  origin  to  injuries  received  seventeen  years  ago," 
he  speaks  as  follows  of  his  "  battle-flag"  bill: 

It  seems  to  me  unjust  and  hard  to  understand  that  my  bill  can  be 
called  hostile  to  the  soldier  or  to  the  President,  when  it  was  introduced 
by  me  May  8,  1862,  and  then  again  Feb.  27,  1865,  and  when  it  has 
been  commended  by  Gen.  Scott,  Gen.  Robert  Anderson,  and  Gen. 
Thomas,  all  good  and  true  soldiers.  If  persons  would  only  consider 
candidly  my  original  convictions  on  this  question,  they  would  see  how 
natural  and  inevitable  has  been  my  conduct.  As  if  in  such  a  matter  I 
could  have  "hostility"  or  "spite"  to  anybody.  I  am  a  public  servant, 
and  never  was  I  moved  by  a  purer  sense  of  duty  than  in  this  bill,  all 
of  which  will  be  seen  at  last.  Meanwhile  men  will  flounder  in  miscon 
ception  and  misrepresentation,  to  be  regretted  in  the  day  of  light. 

Sincerely  yours,  CHARLES  SUMNER. 

XIV. 

We  cannot,  however,  bring  even  this  brief  list  of  cita 
tions  to  a  close  without  some  tributes,  which  Mr.  G.  W. 


SPIRIT   OF  THE   ENGLISH  JOURNALS.  553 

SMALLEY,  the  accomplished  London  correspondent  of 
T/ie  New  York  Tribune,  sent  from  the  English  jour 
nals,  which  during  the  Alabama  discussions  spoke  of  the 
leader  of  the  American  Senate  with  so  much  bitterness : 
"It  is  an  honor  to  The  Times, however"  Mr.  Smalley 
remarks,  that  it  lifts  itself  high  enough  to  say : 

Yet  when  we  look  back  upon  the  30  years  during  which  Mr.  Charles 
Sumner  was  among  the  foremost  in  the  United  States,  we  must  admit 
that  his  career  was  such  as  to  deserve  the  highest  admiration  and  grati 
tude  of  his  fellow-citizens ;  and  those  who  are  disposed  to  judge  his 
faults  with  severity  must  remember  how  much  there  was  to  provoke  to 
intemperance  of  judgment  the  man  who  was  pursued  with  such  ani 
mosity  that  he  barely  escaped  with  life  from  a  cowardly  assault  in  the 
Senate  Chamber  at  Washington. 

The  Daily  News,  which,  during  the  arbitration,  was  one  of  Mr.  Sum 
ner' s  most  hostile  critics,  lays  aside  its  animosities  in  order  to  do  him 
justice.  The  article  is  obviously  by  one  who  knew  him,  and  thus  speaks 
of  his  appearance  and  character  : 

During  his  recent  visit  to  England,  his  friends  noticed  that  he  was 
growing  somewhat  bowed  and  heavy,  and  showing  rather  prematurely  the 
weight  of  years.  But  until  this  very  late  period  he  had  the  advantage 
of  as  striking  a  presence  as  any  public  man  in  our  day  has  ever  dis 
played.  Physically,  there  was,  perhaps,  no  statesman  of  our  time  so 
remarkable,  except  Prince  von  Bismarck  ;  and  without  odious  com 
parisons  it  may  be  observed  that  Mr.  Sumner  had  a  very  handsome 
face,  as  well  as  a  form  of  almost  gigantic  proportions,  and  a  bearing 
expressive  of  singular  energy  and  strength  of  will.  His  character  and 
career  as  a  politician  were  well  in  harmony  with  his  appearance. 
Whatever  he  willed  he  strongly  willed.  All  the  flexibilities  and  docili 
ties,  all  the  quickness  that  suits  itself  with  ease  to  new  conditions,  all 
the  dexterity  which  extracts  the  utmost  advantage  out  of  unavoidable 
compromises,  all  the  artistic  self-control  with  which  clever  statesmen 
have  sometimes  contrived  to  give  to  defeat  itself  the  appearance  of  a 
qualified  victory — all  this  was  wanting  to  Mr.  Sumner.  He  had  clear 
principles,  a  strong  will,  and  a  vigorous  intellect,  which  went  straight 
at  obstacles,  and  either  crushed  over  them  at  once,  or  drew  back  and 
tried  to  crush  over  them  again. 

He  was  an  accomplished  scholar,  a  good  linguist,  a  master  of  Euro 
pean  literature,  and  almost  a  devotee  of  art.  During  his  latest  visit  to 
Europe,  a  year  or  two  back,  he  found  no  pleasure  so  great  as  that  of 
ransacking  the  old  bookshops  and  bookstalls  of  Paris  for  quaint  and 
curious  editions  to  add  to  his  collection.  He  was  a  great  talker  upon 


554  DAILY  NEWS,    THE   GLOBE,   THE   ECHO. 

art  and  literature,  as  well  as  upon  politics ;  and  talked,  as  he  did  every 
thing,  with  tremendous  energy  and  with  an  individual  self-confidence 
which  his  enemies,  and  some  even  of  his  friends,  set  down  as  egotism. 
Many  slyly  satirical  or  humorous  stories  were  told  in  America  apropos 
of  Mr.  Simmer's  faith  in  his  own  eloquence — stories  which  would  have 
affected  Mr.  Stunner  little  even  if  he  had  heard  them,  for  he  was  one  of 
the  very  few  Americans  who  have  no  perception  of  the  meaning  of  a 
jest.  He  was  a  strong,  serious  man,  often  in  the  wrong,  often  unfair 
in  his  judgment,  but  never  consciously  yielding  to  prejudice  ;  always 
inflexibly  faithful  to  his  principles  as  he  saw  them,  and  gifted  with 
power  of  thought  and  speech  and  work  enough  to  make  him  a  distinct 
and  a  memorable  figure  in  the  history  of  his  country's  political  growth. 

The  Globe,  the  evening  Conservative  daily,  contains  a  tribute  to  Mr. 
Simmer,  indeed,  quite  remarkable,  and  the  more  gratifying  from  an  op 
ponent  of  Liberalism.  The  Globe  says  : 

From  1850,  when  he  was  elected  to  the  seat  in  the  Senate  vacated  by 
Webster,  who  had  entered  the  Fillmore  Cabinet,  the  name  of  Simmer 
has  been  as  famous  in  Europe  as  in  the  United  States.  In  his  own 
country  the  influence  he  exerted  was  always  great,  and  his  ten  years' 
Chairmanship  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations  made  him  a 
power  abroad.  His  argument  in  the  famous  Mason  and  Slidell  case, 
to  the  effect  that  the  seizure  on  a  British  ship  was  unjustifiable  according 
to  the  law  of  nations,  gave  temporary  offence  to  his  countrymen,  but  on 
the  whole  Simmer  was  one  of  the  most  popular  American  statesmen  of 
this  generation.  The  secret  of  his  success  was  due  to  the  ability  he 
possessed  of  catching  "  the  opinion  of  to-morrow"  on  any  question  in 
which  public  opinion  was  excited.  Once  having  found  this — and  his 
statesmanlike  mind  seldom  missed  in  the  search — he  maintained  his  po 
sition  with  admirable  tenacity  till  "  the  opinion  of  to-morrow"  became  that 
of  to-day.  When  necessity  required  he  declined  to  act  as  the  mouthpiece 
of  public  opinion,  assured  that  the  time  would  soon  come  when,  without 
changing  his  own  attitude,  he  would  be  its  correct  exponent. 

The  Echo,  a  very  widely  circulated  Liberal  paper,  thinks  some  future 
biographer  may  explain  why  Mr.  Sumner  lost  his  hold  of  power  and  in 
fluence,  and  this  will  be  his  conclusion : 

He  may  and  probably  will  regard  Charles  Sumner  as  too  pure  and 
upright-minded  a  man  for  the  highest  political  success.  He  was  im 
pulsive,  too,  and  this  is  apt  to  detract  from  the  influence  of  a  statesman 
as  a  leader.  No  American  of  equal  importance  admired  England  more 
and  yet  none  was  popularly  regarded  as  more  her  enemy.  His  famous 
speech  putting  forth  the  first  mention  of  the  Indirect  Claims,  made 
Englishmen  too  ready  to  forget  his  great  services  to  humanity  in  regard 
to  the  Abolition  of  Slavery.  Perhaps  Mr.  Sumner  was  a  man  of  too 
self-conscious,  too  refined  a  mind,  for  success  ;  one  who  was  ever  careful 


THE   EXAMINER  AND   ANGLO-AMERICAN   TIMES.  555 

in  self-examination,  and  too  careless  of  the  thoughts  of  others  for  the 
largest  popularity. 

The  Pall  Mall  Gazette  is  silent ;  for  which,  all  thanks.  So  is  The 
Saturday  Review  for  this  week.  It  is  pleasant  to  find  in  The  Examiner 
the  following  paragraph : 

The  obituary  of  the  week  includes  the  name  of  Charles  Sumner,  an 
American  for  whom  Englishmen  have  always  felt  the  greatest  respect 
and  sympathy.  His  voice  was  most  powerfully  raised  against  the  insti 
tution  of  Slavery  in  the  Southern  States  long  before  the  issue  of  civil 
war  came  to  solve  the  otherwise  unsolvable  question.  On  all  other 
matters  where  individual  liberty  was  at  stake,  Mr.  Charles  Sumner  was 
ever  found  among  the  boldest  and  most  uncompromising  champions  of 
the  oppressed  ;  and  he  was  not  without  that  meed  of  persecution  which 
is  the  invariable  fate  of  men  of  his  heroic  character. 
He  annoyed  some  of  his  friends  by  supporting  the  claims  for  "  indirect 
damages"  in  the  Alabama  case  ;  but  we  have  reason  to  believe  that 
the  conduct  of  our  Government  in  the  proceedings  which  led  up  to  the 
arbitration,  went  far  to  bring  Mr.  Sumner  back  to  his  former  apprecia 
tion  of  England  and  Englishmen. 

All  the  more  pleasant,  because  the  controlling  influence  in  The  Exam 
iner  is  now  in  the  hands  of  one  of  the  men  I  have  referred  to  as  faithful 
friends  to  us  during  the  Rebellion,  and  then  losing  patience  and  waxing 
wroth  during  the  arbitration  business. 

Among  all  the  articles  I  have  seen  in  English  papers  there  is  none 
comparable  for  careful  study  of  Mr.  Sumner' s  character  and  acts,  and 
wise  estimate  of  them,  to  that  in  The  Anglo-American  Times ;  a 
journal,  I  should  add,  edited  by  Englishmen,  and  written  by  English 
men,  and  which  other  Englishmen  would  do  well  to  study  for  its  teach 
ing  and  example.  It  says  : 

Perhaps  of  all  Americans,  Charles  Sumner  stood  foremost  in  the  es 
teem  of  his  countrymen.  He  was  eloquent,  he  was  cultured,  pure  in 
character,  lofty  in  aspiration,  patriotic  and  unselfish  in  his  aims.  Few 
men  have  been  so  tried  by  the  perversity  of  human  nature,  yet  he  never 
lost  faith  in  it.  In  all  the  broad  Union  there  was  no  more  ardent  lover 
of  freedom,  nor  any  man  with  a  stronger  faith  in  the  institutions  of  the 
Republic  he  loved  so  well  and  worked  for  so  long  and  faithfully.  In 
deed,  he  may  be  called  a  martyr  to  his  devotion  to  human  rights ;  for 
his  death  is  traceable  to  the  assault  Mr.  Brooks  made  upon  him  in  the 
Senate  Chamber.  He  was  a  tall,  handsome,  strongly  built  man ;  but 
the  injuries  he  then  received  laid  him  on  a  bed  of  sickness  for  years, 
causing  him  intense  suffering,  ultimately  sending  him  to  his  grave  at  an 
age  when  a  period  of  usefulness  might  still  be  looked  for.  But  Charles 
Sumner  was  too  earnest  to  witness  unmoved  the  Administration  sinking 
into  corruption ;  and  he  worked  so  assiduously  to  stem  the  current  that 


556  WORTHY   TRIBUTE   TO   SUMNER'S   CHARACTER. 

he  helped  towards  the  accomplishment  of  the  assassin's  design,  till  his 
medical  adviser  almost  forced  him,  in  the  midst  of  the  last  Presidential 
campaign,  to  run  across  to  Europe,  effectually  to  shut  from  his  sight 
papers,  books,  and  business,  *  *  * 

We  now  know,  as  do  all  who  study  American  politics,  that  Senator 
Sumner  was  in  the  right ;  an  admission  truth  compels  us  to  make,  al 
though,  at  the  time,  we  shared  that  feeling.  It  is  because  we  now  more 
fully  comprehend  the  magnitude  of  the  contest  and  the  difficulties  of 
the  position  in  the  struggle  of  the  statesman  against  the  "politicians," 
that  we  are  able  to  appreciate  the  force  of  what  the  Senator  then  said  ; 
and  we  may  add,  that  we  deplore  the  loss  of  the  great  leader  in  the 
cause  of  reform.  The  Senator  has  passed  away  at  the  climax,  leaving 
the  conduct  of  the  war  to  other,  though,  we  fear,  less  efficient  hands, 
but  not  till  the  great  utility  of  his  life  had  been  impaired  through  his 
failing  health.  He  leaves,  however,  a  record,  not  only  as  an  example 
to  the  young,  but  to  inspire  those  bent  on  carrying  on  the  war  against 
the  political  system  which  has  bred  such  corruption,  to  a  successful 
issue  ;  a  reputation  unblemished  in  an  atmosphere  of  intrigue  ;  pure, 
where  political  purity  is  rare  ;  ever  surrounded  by  strong  temptations, 
wielding,  as  he  did,  a  power  greater  than  has  perhaps  yet  been  wielded 
on  the  continent  of  North  America. 

With  that  I  close,  rejoicing  that,  in  the  country  which  Mr.  Sumner 
loved  and  the  opinion  of  which  he  valued  so  highly,  at  least  one  trib 
ute  not  unworthy  of  him  has  appeared.  I  should  add  that  in  the 
leading  provincial  journals,  the  articles  I  have  seen  are,  on  the  whole, 
more  just  than  those  of  London. 

But  it  was  not  from  England  that  justice  to  the  de 
parted  statesman  was  expected  to  come.  By  the  en 
lightened  and  unprejudiced  journalists  of  the  continent 
of  Europe — to  which  strangeness  of  language  gives  the 
impartiality  of  time — CHARLES  SUMNER  met  that  judg 
ment  at  once,  which  in  England  is  shown  the  Americans 
only  by  the  next  generation. 

Perhaps  in  no  quarter  has  Senator  Sumner's  character 
as  a  man  and  a  statesman,  been  more  candidly  drawn, 
than  it  was  in  the  Boston  Journal  on  the  day  of  his 
funeral : 

The  time  has  not  come  for  doing  full  justice  to  the  great  career  and 
the  great  character  so  faintly  outlined  in  the  preceding  sketch.  Mr. 


HIS   PORTRAIT   BY   THE   BOSTON  JOURNAL.  557 

Sumner  was  essentially  different  from  the  most  distinguished  American 
statesmen  who  had  gone  before  him.  He  was  primarily  a  scholar,  con 
strained  by  prophetic  moral  impulses  into  the  field  of  politics.  In  en- 
cyclopediac  knowledge  none  of  our  statesmen  are  to  be  compared  with 
him,  unless  it  may  have  been  John  Quincy  Adams.  In  philosophical 
tendencies  he  somewhat  resembled  Jefferson,  while  he  revealed  an 
earnestness,  breadth  and  fervor  in  his  humane  sympathies  which  were 
as  much  superior  to  Jefferson's  as  his  eloquence  was  greater.  He  was 
not  a  great  debater,  on  account,  partly,  of  the  scholastic  character  of 
his  mind,  and  because  he  had  a  peculiar  conception  of  the  sphere  of  a 
Senator.  He  once  said  :  "A  seat  here  in  the  Senate  is  a  lofty  pulpit 
with  a  mighty  sounding-board,  and  the  whole  wide-spread  people  is  the 
congregation."  Whenever  he  arose,  therefore,  to  speak,  it  was  not 
merely  to  discuss  the  legislative  question  in  hand  and  to  address  the 
little  circle  of  Senators  around  him  ;  he  was  to  expound  in  their  full 
ness  the  large  relations  and  suggestions  of  the  topic  for  the  benefit  of 
the  press  and  the  whole  American  nation.  His  speeches  were  treatises 
winged  with  oratory.  There  is  nothing  like  them  in  the  records  of  our 
national  eloquence.  They  are  wanting  in  the  massive  simplicity,  the 
conciseness  and  severe  taste  of  Webster's  speeches ;  their  profusion  of 
historic  allusions  and  quotations  would  seem  artificial,  but  for  its  being 
the  natural  expression  of  the  author's  mind,  and  it  is  doubtful  if  the 
peculiarity  will  give  pleasure  to  another  generation  of  readers.  But 
the  force  of  reasoning,  the  broad  energy  of  purpose,  sweeping  along 
like  the  Mississippi — like  that,  too,  showing  its  power  in  its  crevasses 
as  well  as  in  its  legitimate  channel — and  the  soul  of  moral  heroism 
which  illumines  every  sentence,  will  never  want  for  admirers ;  what  is 
better,  will  never  cease  to  disseminate  good  influences  and  to  bear  good 
fruit  among  mankind. 

This  moral  heroism,  indeed,  constitutes  the  crowning  distinction  of 
Charles  Sumner,  and  gives  him  his  title  to  immortal  fame.  It  shone 
about  his  whole  working  life  as  a  public  servant.  Throughout  his 
checkered  career  no  enemy — and  none  had  bitterer  than  he — was  ever 
found  bold  enough  to  connect  his  name  with  any  jobbery  or  inter 
ested  scheme.  His  integrity  was  more  than  Roman,  it  was  Chris 
tian.  So,  too,  this  heroism  was  seen  in  its  triumphing  over  the  adverse 
influences  of  his  training  and  in  its  transformation  of  his  own  character. 
He  was  not  democratic  in  his  personal  sympathies,  while  the  associa 
tions  of  his  early  life  were  limiting  if  not  aristocratic  in  their  tendencies  ; 
and  no  one  from  tlience  could  have  predicted  that  here  was  to  be  the 


558  CHAPLET  WOVEN  BY   GRACE   GREENWOOD. 

champion  of  equality,  the  apostle  of  deliverance  to  the  poor  and  de 
spised  of  another  race.  But  the  principle  that  was  in  him  took  him  up 
with  the  devotion  of  a  Luther  and  the  zeal  of  a  Loyola.  All  men  be 
came  alike  in  his  eyes — alike  entitled  to  justice,  to  the  protection  and 
the  immunities  of  the  law.  In  pursuit  of  this  object  he  feared  noth 
ing  on  earth  and  he  spared  nothing  that  stood  in  his  way.  And 
though  his  unswerving  fidelity  brought  him  to  death's  door,  he  lived — 
as  few  of  the  world's  heroes  have — to  see  his  complete  triumph,  and 
to  feel  in  his  heart,  we  have  no  doubt,  the  sweet  consciousness  that 
mankind  would  never  willingly  let  his  memory  die. 

But  amongst  all  the  floral  offerings  which  "  deck  his 
sylvan  grave,"  one  at  least  shall  be  laid  there  by  the 
gentle  hand  of  woman  : — and  whose  fingers  could  better 
weave  the  chaplet  than  Grace  Greenwood's  ? 

With  the  memory  of  my  great  friend  (can  it  be  that  he  is  already  only 
a  memory  ?)  come  certain  further  off,  pale  and  uncertain  presences — 
the  friends  who  were  about  him  when  I  knew  him  first — Hawthorne, 
with  his  noble,  sensitive  face,  his  deep-set,  furtive,  melancholy  eyes ;  Starr 
King,  radiant  with  genius. and  princely  in  his  perfect  humanity;  that 
beautiful  wife  of  his  poet-friend,  she  whose  sweet,  sad  voice  was  pro 
phetic  of  her  martyr-like  fate ;  that  scholarly  brother,  so  like  him  in 
person,  in  voice,  in  love  of  books  and  art ;  and  that  illustrious  scientist, 
beloved  and  revered  alike  upon  two  hemispheres,  that  sweet,  strong, 
childlike  and  grand  human  soul  we  knew  as  Louis  Agassiz.  These  and 
many  more  choice  spirits  whose  lives  have  mingled  with  or  touched  on 
his,  come  before  me,  and  I  am  inexpressibly  comforted  by  the  thought 
of  the  goodly  company  he  has  been  called  to  rejoin. 

Whenever  I  have  had  a  friend  from  abroad  to  whom  I  would  show 
special  courtesy,  I  have  taken  him  or  her  to  that  beautiful  house  by  the 
Arlington,  and  have  always  been  sure  of  a  welcome.  Whatever  his 
engagements  or  his  ailments,  if  able  to  see  his  friends  at  all,  he  received 
them  with  a  cordial  grasp  of  the  hand,  and  that  rare,  sweet  smile,  which 
was  like  a  burst  of  pure  Spring  sunshine  on  a  sombre  day.  I  was  in 
that  house  on  the  morning  of  that  sad  Wednesday,  lingering  and  wait 
ing,  with  other  friends,  refusing  to  believe  that  there  was  "no  hope." 
I  saw  there  men  I  had  heard  called,  and  half  believed  to  be.  hardened 
and  heartless  politicians,  weeping  like  women,  and,  despite  the  judg 
ment  of  his  enemies  and  detractors,  I  was  doubly  convinced  that  the 
man  had  a  "genius  to  be  loved." 


THE   SILENT   HOUSE   AND   VACANT   CHAIR.  559 

Last  evening  I  passed  by  that  house  so  soon  to  be  despoiled  of  its 
precious  books  and  art-treasures.  It  was  apparently  unchanged — lighted 
up  as  cheerfully  as  before  he  went  away ;  even  the  graceful  transparen 
cies  in  those  pleasant  study-windows  remained  as  they  were.  The  hall- 
door  was  open,  and  the  gas-light  shone  full  on  the  tall,  old-fashioned 
clock,  which  had  ticked  off  for  him  so  many  hours  of  faithful  toil — of 
weary  wakefulness,  of  cruel  pain,  till  that  last  moment  of  mental  agony, 
when  his  great,  pure,  honest  heart  broke. 

How  plainly  that  old  clock  repeats  to  the  souls  who  loved  the  master 
of  the  house  : 

"  Never  here,  forever  there, 

Where  all  parting,  pain  and  care, 

And  death  and  time  shall  disappear : 

Forever  there,  but  never  here  ! 

The  horologe  of  eternity 

Sayeth  this  incessantly, 

Forever — never — never,  forever  ! ' ' 

The  face  of  Mr.  Simmer  in  death  bore  more  than  the  usual  resem 
blance  to  Edmund  Burke.  With  his  gray  hair  resting  like  a  glory  on 
the  pillow,  he  looked  very  noble,  but  so  tired !  We  felt  amid  our  griev 
ing  that  all  was  well.  God  had  given  His  beloved  sleep. 

Most  of  the  floral  offerings  laid  on  the  great  Senator's  coffin  were 
from  his  colored  friends.  They  lavished  upon  him  the  most  rare  and 
costly  flowers.  On  his  desk  stood  a  bouquet  of  roses  and  azalias,  white 
as  the  "white  soul"  Emerson  so  honored. 

Saddest  of  all  sights  was  his  empty  chair,  draped  in  mourning,  and 
yet  an  august  presence  seemed  to  hover  about  it.  If,  indeed,  he  were 
there  able  to  see,  and  hear,  and  understand ;  if  he  looked  around  on  the 
scene  of  many  struggles  and  conflicts,  on  his  enemies  and  on  his  friends, 
what  poor  things  must  have  seemed  to  him  all  human  strifes  and  ani 
mosities  ;  how  precious  human  love  and  loyalty ;  how  great  and  sor 
rowful  a  thing  life ;  how  beautiful  and  blessed  death  ! 


560  THE   STERN   DUTY   OF  THE   HISTORIAN. 

SECTION    TWELFTH. 

His  Character  and  Fame. 

I. 

IN  tracing  Mr.  SUMNER'S  course  in  the  Senate,  I  inten 
tionally  avoided  any  account  of  his  rupture  with  the 
President,  and  the  alienation  from  him  of  the  great  body 
of  the  Republican  party.  I  took  this  course  partly  from 
a  repugnance  I  have  had  all  my  life  to  entering  into  the 
contests  and  bickerings  of  partisans  ;  and  partly  from 
reluctance  to  appear  in  any  attitude  of  hostility  to  a 
President,  a  Secretary  of  State,  and  the  leaders  of  the 
great  political  organization  which  had  saved  the  nation 
from  overthrow,  and  by  so  many  noble  and  beneficent 
acts,  commanded  the  confidence  of  the  country,  and  the 
respect  of  mankind.  I  did  not  deem  it  worthy  of  a  pa 
triotic  man,  to  allow  any  disappointment,  or  even  per 
sonal  injury,  however  deep,  to  deter  him  from  supporting 
a  party  that  was  doing  so  well  ;  while  it  should  always 
be  beneath  the  true  dignity  of  a  historian,  to  cast  over 
the  mind  of  his  reader  any  of  the  shadows  of  party  con 
flicts  to  disturb  the  judgment  with  which  the  occurrence 
of  important  events  should  be  contemplated.  At  the 
same  time,  I  should  feel  that  I  was  acting  utterly  unwor 
thy  of  the  responsibility  I  assumed  in  writing  this  book, 
if  I  should  close  it  without  an  unqualified  expression  of 
the  disapproval  which  all  honorable  minds  must  enter 
tain  of  that  act  of  insult,  folly  and  cowardice  by  which 
the  greatest  man  in  the  American  Senate,  was  displaced 
from  the  Chairmanship  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign 
Affairs.  The  petty  annoyances  and  revenges  with  which 


SUMMER'S  RUPTURE  WITH  THE  ADMINISTRATION.     561 

his  manhood,  independence,  and  integrity  were  outraged, 
and  the  hatred  manifested  against  him,  were  pitiful  in 
deed  ! 

It  would,  now,  be  wrong — a  wrong  to  the  memory  of 
CHARLES  SUMNER,  and  a  wrong  to  the  truth  of  history, 
to  withhold  any  portion  of  the  facts,  however  unfavora 
bly  they  may  reflect  upon  others  :  and  if,  in  moving  this 
shadow  from  the  fair  fame  of  the  great  Senator,  it  falls 
upon  other  men,  however  bright  their  names  may  hith 
erto  have  been,  or  however  high  they  may  stand  to-day, 
—all  this  is  their  business,  not  mine.  They  make  his 
tory  :  I  write  it. 

II. 

The  facts,  then,  are  these.  It  was  well-known  that 
the  only  reason  alleged  for  the  removal  by  the  Senate 
of  Mr.  SUMNER  from  the  position  he  had  for  many  years 
filled  with  such  consummate  ability,  as  Chairman  of  the 
Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs,  was,  that  he  was  not 
upon  friendly  social  terms  with  the  President  and  the 
Department  of  State.  He  prepared,  at  the  time,  a  care 
ful  statement  showing  why  the  cordiality  of  those  rela 
tions  had  been  disturbed ;  and  it  was  known  that  he  in 
tended  to  deliver  that  speech  in  the  Senate.  But  his 
friends  Mr.  TRUMBULL  and  CARL  SCHURZ,  to  whom  his 
intention  was  made  known,  dissuaded  him  from  his  pur 
pose,  by  appealing  to  his  generous  nature;  and  to  this 
appeal  he  yielded.  During  three  years  "  he  refrained 
from  delivering  it,  suffering  in  silence  the  most  offensive 
imputations  from  those  who  were  unable  to  appreciate 
his  loyal  support,  or  his  disinterested  opposition." 
These  words  I  have  quoted  from  the  New  York 
36 


562          THE  JUDGMENT   OF   THE   NEW   YORK   TRIBUNE. 

Tribune  of  this — Monday  morning,   April   6,   1874 — in 
which  the  editor  says : 

In  the  opinion  of  his  friends,  the  time  has  come  when  this  speech, 
suppressed  by  its  illustrious  author  from  the  highest  considerations  of 
dignity  and  patriotism,  should  be  given  to  the  country,  in  explanation 
of  the  circumstances  which  lost  to  the  Senate  the  influence  of  its  great 
est  and  purest  member,  and  by  which  the  Administration  deprived  it 
self  of  a  friend  as  powerful  as  he  was  unselfish. 

We  presume  the  essential  facts  of  this  disclosure  will  remain  undis 
puted.  As  to  the  inferences  to  be  drawn  from  them,  there  are  many  who 
will  disagree  with  Mr.  Sumner  as  to  the  share  of  responsibility  which 
should  rest  upon  the  Secretary  of  State  for  the  course  pursued  by  the 
Administration  towards  Mr.  Motley.  It  is  probable  that  the  Senator 
may  have  revised  his  own  judgment  at  a  later  day,  as  it  is  certain  that 
he  gave  his  hearty  support  and  approval  to  the  course  of  the  Secretary 
of  State  in  reference  to  the  seizure  of  the  Virginius,  The  facts  here 
brought  forward  would  seem  to  point  to  what  every  candid  person  must 
regard  as  the  vulnerable  feature  of  the  Secretary's  administration — his 
tendency  to  yield  to  the  vulgar  malice  and  ignorant  caprices  of  the 
President,  instead  of  obeying  his  own  instincts,  and  resisting  or  resign 
ing. 

The  chief  discredit,  however,  as  we  have  said  before,  falls  upon  the 
.'Senate  of  the  United  States.  Their  most  valuable  and  distinguished 
member  opposed,  in  a  frank  and  open  manner,  with  his  usual  energy, 
but  with  his  usual  courtesy  also,  a  plan  of  the  President  to  acquire,  by 
unconstitutional  means,  a  neighboring  island.  He  succeeded  in  defeat 
ing  this  scheme  in  the  Senate.  The  President,  upon  this,  dismissed  our 
Minister  at  London,  because  he  was  an  intimate  friend  of  Mr.  Sumner  ; 
he  also  said  "  that  if  he  were  not  President  he  would  call  Mr.  Sumner 
to  account.;"  his  aide-de-camp,  the  messenger  between  the  Executive 
.Mansion  and  the  Senate  Chamber,  said,  "if  he  were  not  an  officer  of 
the  army  he  would  chastise  Mr.  Sumner."  The  Senate,  far  from  resent 
ing  these  indecent  attacks,  sided  with  the  Executive  against  their  col 
league,  and  hastened  to  propitiate  the  angry  President  by  depriving  the 
Massachusetts  Senator  of  his  places  on  the  Committees  where  he  had 
no  rival.  Into  the  vast  vacancy  which  he  made  at  the  head  of  the 
Foreign  Relations  Committee,  Mr.  Simon  Cameron  was  put  by  the  vote 
of  a  Senate  which  seemed  to  have  lost  with  its  conscience  its  sense  of 
honor,  and  the  most  -scholarly  statesman  of  our  time  was  further  grossly 


JUSTICE   FROM   THE   MUSE   OF   HISTORY.  563 

insulted  by  being  placed  fourth  in  the  Committee  on  Education,  pre 
sided  over  by  Mr.  Flanagan  of  Texas.  The  document  we  print  to-day 
will  show  how  much  excuse  they  had  for  this  piece  of  folly  and  slavish 
subservience.  It  is  a  part  of  the  history  of  the  country,  and  an  import 
ant  chapter  in  the  biography  of  one  of  its  first  statesmen. 

It  is  due  also  to  the  fair  fame  of  the  most  brilliant 
historian  America  has  yet  given  to  the  world,  that  the 
insult  to  him  should  be  hurled  back  where  it  came  from  ; 
and  that  another  illustration  may  be  given  of  the  glori 
ous  fact,  that  the  fame  of  such  men  as  JOHN  LOTHROP 
MOTLEY  and  CHARLES  SUMNER,  is  in  the  keeping  of  the 
Muse  of  History,  and  not  of  the  politician.  She  presides 
serenely  over  the  tribunal  of  justice,  and  from  her  stern 
awards  there  is  no  appeal. 

In  preserving  this  speech,  we  have  reproduced  it  with 
typographical  accuracy  from  the  Tribune.  The  circum 
stances  under  which  the  speech  was  prepared  and  sup 
pressed,  were  stated  by  the  eminent  author  himself,  in 
the  subjoined  note,  with  which  the  Tribune  introduces 
the  speech  itself: 

III. 

To  the  Reader. — This  statement  was  prepared  in  March,  shortly  after 
the  debate  in  the  Senate,  but  was  withheld  at  that  time  from  unwilling 
ness  to  take  part  in  the  controversy,  while  able  friends  regarded  the 
question  of  principle  involved  as  above  every  personal  issue.  Yielding 
at  last  to  various  pressure,  Mr.  Sumner  concluded  to  present  it  at  the 
recent  called  session  of  the  Senate,  but  the  Treaty  with  Great  Britain 
and  the  case  of  the  newspaper  correspondents  were  so  engrossing  as  to 
leave  no  time  for  anything  else. 
WASHINGTON,  June,  1871. 

Mr.  SUMNER — While  I  was  under  trial  before  the  Senate,  on  articles 
of  impeachment  presented  by  the  Senator  from  Wisconsin  (Mr.  Howe), 
J  forbore  taking  any  part  in  the  debate,  even  in  reply  to  allegations, 
asserted  to  be  of  decisive  importance,  touching  my  relations  svith  the 


564  SUMNER'S   SUPPRESSED    SPEECH. 

President  and  Secretary  of  State.  All  this  was  trivial  enough  ;  but 
numerous  appeals  to  me,  from  opposite  parts  of  the  country,  show  that 
good  people  have  been  diverted  by  these  allegations  from  the  question 
of  principle  involved.  Without  intending  in  any  way  to  revive  the 
heats  of  that  debate,  I  am  induced  to  make  a  plain  statement  of  facts, 
so  that  the  precise  character  of  those  relations  shall  be  known.  1  do 
this  with  unspeakable  reluctance,  but  in  the  discharge  of  a  public  duty 
where  the  claims  of  patriotism  are  above  even  those  of  self-defence. 
The  Senate  and  the  country  have  an  interest  in  knowing  the  truth  of 
this  matter,  and  so  also  has  the  Republican  party,  which  cannot  be 
indifferent  to  pretensions  in  its  name  ;  nor  will  anything  but  the  com- 
pletest  frankness  be  proper  for  the  occasion. 

In  overcoming  this  reluctance  I  am  aided  by  Senators  who  are  deter 
mined  to  make  me  speak.  The  Senator  from  Wisconsin  (Mr.  Howe), 
who  appears-  as  prosecuting  officer,  after  alleging  these  personal  rela 
tions  as  the  gravamen  of  accusation  against  me — making  the  issue 
pointedly  on  this  floor,  and  actually  challenging  reply — not  content 
with  the  opportunity  of  this  Chamber,  hurried  to  the  public  press, 
where  he  repeated  the  accusation,  and  now  circulates  it,  as  I  am  told, 
under  his  frank,  crediting  it  in  formal  terms  to  the  liberal  paper  in 
which  it  appeared,  but  without  allusion  to  the  editorial  refutation  which 
accompanied  it.  On  still  another  occasion,  appearing  still  as  pros 
ecuting  officer,  the  same  Senator  volunteered  out  of  his  own  invention 
to  denounce  me  as  leaving  the  Republican  party  ;  and  this  he  did,  with 
infinite  personality  of  language  and  manner,  in  the  very  face  of  my 
speech — to  which  he  was  replying — where,  in  positive  words,  I  declare 
that  I  speak  "  for  the  sake  of  the  Republican  party,"  which  I  hope  to 
save  from  responsibility  for  wrongful  acts,  and  then,  in  other  words, 
making  the  whole  assumption  of  the  Senator  an  impossibility,  1  an 
nounce,  that  in  speaking  for  the  Republican  party  it  is  "  because  from 
the  beginning  I  have  been  the  faithful  servant  of  that  party,  and  aspire 
to  see  it  strong  and  triumphant."  In  the  face  of  this  declared  aspira 
tion,  in  harmony  with  my  whole  life,  the  Senator  delivered  his  attack, 
and,  assuming  to  be  nothing  less  than  Pope,  launched  against  me  his 
bull  of  excommunication.  Then,  again  playing  Pope,  he  took  back  his 
thunder,  with  the  apology  that  others  thought  so  ;  and  this  alleged 
understanding  of  others,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  set  above  my  positive 
and  contemporaneous  language,  that  I  aspired  to  see  the  Republican 
party  strong  and  triumphant.  Then  came  the  Senator  from  Ohio  (Mr. 


WHY   SUMNER   OPPOSED   THE    PRESIDENT'S   SCHEME.     565 

Sherman),  who,  taking  up  his  vacation  pen,  added  to  the  articles  of 
impeachment,  by  a  supplementary  allegation,  adopted  by  the  Senator 
under  a  misapprehension  of  facts.  Here  was  another  challenge.  Dur 
ing  all  this  time  I  have  been  silent.  Senators  have  spoken,  and  then 
rushed  into  print ;  but  I  have  said  nothing.  They  have  had  their  own 
way  with  regard  to  me.  It  is  they  who  leave  me  no  alternative. 

It  is  alleged  that  I  have  no  personal  relations  with  the  President. 
Here  the  answer  is  easy.  I  have  precisely  the  relations  which  he  has 
chosen.  On  reaching  Washington  in  December  last,  I  was  assured  from 
various  quarters  that  the  White  House  was  angry  with  me,  and  soon 
afterward  the  public  journals  reported  the  President  as  saying  to  a 
Senator  that  if  he  were  not  President,  he  "  would  call  me  to  account." 
What  he  meant  I  never  understood,  nor  would  I  attribute  to  him  more 
than  he  meant ;  but  that  he  used  the  language  reported  I  have  no 
doubt,  from  information  independent  of  the  newspapers.  I  repeat  that 
on  this  point  I  have  no  doubt.  The  same  newspapers  reported  also, 
that  a  member  of  the  President's  household,  enjoying  his  peculiar  con 
fidence,  taking  great  part  in  the  Santo  Domingo  scheme,  had  menaced 
me  with  personal  violence.  I  could  not  believe  the  story  except  on 
positive,  unequivocal  testimony.  That  the  menace  was  made  on  the  con 
dition  of  his  not  being  an  army  officer,  I  do  not  doubt.  The  member  of 
the  household  when  interrogated  by  my  excellent  colleague  (Mr.  Wil 
son)  positively  denied  the  menace,  but  I  am  assured,  on  authority  above 
question,  that  he  has  since  acknowledged  it,  while  the  President  still  re 
tains  him  in  service,  and  sends  him  to  this  Chamber. 

During  this  last  session,  I  have  opposed  the  Presidential  policy  on  an 
important  question  ;  but  always  without  one  word  touching  motives,  or 
one  suggestion  of  corruption  on  his  part,  although  I  never  doubted  that 
there  were  actors  in  the  business  who  could  claim  no  such  immunity. 
It  now  appears  that  Fabens,  who  carne  here  as  plenipotentiary  to  press 
the  scheme,  has  concessions  to  such  amount  that  the  diplomatist  is  lost 
in  the  speculator.  I  always  insisted  that  the  President  was  no  party  to 
any  such  transaction.  I  should  do  injustice  to  my  own  feelings  if  I  did 
not  here  declare  my  regret  that  I  could  not  agree  with  the  President. 
I  tried  to  think  as  he  did,  but  I  could  not.  I  listened  to  the  arguments 
on  his  side  ;  but  in  vain.  The  adverse  considerations  multiplied  with 
time  and  reflection.  To  those  who  know  the  motives  of  my  life,  it  is 
superfluous  for  me  to  add  that  I  sought  simply  the  good  of  my  country 


566  HE   FEELS   FORCED   TO   THE    REVELATION. 

and  Humanity,  including  especially  the  good  of  the  African  race,  to 
which  our  country  owes  so  much. 

Already  there  was  anger  at  the  White  House  when  the  scheme  to  buy 
and  annex  half  an  island  in  the  Caribbean  Sea  was  pressed  upon  the 
Senate  in  legislative  session,  under  the  guise  of  appointing  a  Commis 
sion,  and  it  became  my  duty  to  expose  it.  Here  I  was  constrained  to 
show  how,  at  very  large  expense,  the  usurper  Baez  was  maintained  in 
power  by  the  Navy  of  the  United  States,  to  enable  him  to  sell  his 
country,  while  at  the  same  time  the  independence  of  the  Black  Re 
public  was  menaced,  all  of  which  was  in  violation  of  International  Law, 
and  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  which  reserves  to  Con 
gress  the  power  "  to  declare  war."  What  I  said  was  in  open  debate, 
where  the  record  will  speak  for  me.  I  hand  it  over  to  the  most  careful 
scrutiny,  knowing  that  the  President  can  take  no  just  exception  to  it, 
unless  he  insists  upon  limiting  proper  debate,  and  boldly  denies  the 
right  of  a  Senator  to  express  himself  freely  on  great  acts  of  wrong.  Nor 
will  any  Republican  Senator  admit  that  the  President  can  impose  his 
own  sole  will  upon  the  Republican  party.  Our  party  is  in  itself  a  Re 
public  with  universal  suffrage,  and  until  a  measure  is  adopted  by  the 
party,  no  Republican  President  can  make  it  a  party  test. 

Much  as  I  am  pained  in  making  this  statement  with  regard  to  the 
President,  infinitely  more  painful  to  me  is  what  I  must  present  with  re 
gard  to  the  Secretary  of  State.  Here  again  I  remark  that  I  am  driven 
to  this  explanation.  His  strange  and  unnatural  conduct  toward  me,  and 
his  prompting  of  Senators,  who,  one  after  another,  have  set  up  my  al 
leged  relations  with  him  as  ground  of  complaint,  make  it  necessary  for 
me  to  proceed. 

We  were  sworn  as  Senators  on  the  same  day,  as  far  back  as  1851,  and 
from  that  distant  time  were  friends,  until  the  Santo  Domingo  business  in 
tervened.  Nothing  could  exceed  our  kindly  relations  in  the  past.  On 
the  evening  of  the  inauguration  of  Gen.  Grant  as  President,  he  was  at 
my  house  with  Mr.  Motley  in  friendly  communion,  and  all  uniting  in 
aspirations  for  the  new  Administration.  Little  did  Mr.  Motley  or  myself 
imagine  in  that  social  hour  that  one  of  our  little  circle  was  so  soon 
to  turn  upon  us  both. 

Shortly  afterward  Mr.  Fish  became  Secretary  of  State,  and  began 
his  responsible  duties  by  appealing  to  me  for  help.  I  need  not  say 


SUMNER    IN    CONFERENCE    WITH    SECRETARY    FISH.       567 

that  I  had  pleasure  in  responding  to  his  call,  and  that  I  did  what  I 
could  most  sincerely  and  conscientiously  to  aid  him.  Of  much,  from 
his  arrival  down  to  his  alienation  on  the  Santo  Domingo  business,  I  pos 
sess  the  written  record.  For  some  time  he  showed  a  sympathy  with 
the  scheme  almost  as  little  as  my  own.  But  as  the  President  grew  in 
earnestness  the  Secretary  yielded,  until  tardily  he  became  its  attorney. 
Repeatedly  he  came  to  my  house,  pleading  for  the  scheme.  Again  and 
again  he  urged  it ;  sometimes  at  my  house  and  sometimes  at  his  own. 
I  was  astonished  that  he  could  do  so,  and  expressed  my  astonishment 
with  the  frankness  of  old  friendship.  For  apology,  he  announced  that 
he  was  the  President's  friend,  and  took  office  as  such.  "  But,"  said  I, 
"you  should  resign  rather  than  do  this  thing."  This  I  could  not  re 
frain  from  remarking  on  discovery  from  dispatches  in  the  State  Depart 
ment  that  the  usurper  Baez  was  maintained  in  power  by  our  navy. 
This  plain  act  of  wrong  required  instant  redress  ;  but  the  Secretary  as 
tonished  me  again  by  his  insensibility  to  my  appeal  for  justice.  He 
maintained  the  President,  as  the  President  maintained  Baez.  I  confess 
that  I  was  troubled. 

At  last,  some  time  in  June,  1870,  a  few  weeks  before  the  Santo  Do 
mingo  treaty  was  finally  rejected  by  the  Senate,  the  Secretary  came  to 
my  house  about  9  o'clock  in  the  evening  and  remained  till  after  the 
clock  struck  midnight,  the  whole  protracted  visit  being  occupied  in 
earnest  and  reiterated  appeal  that  I  should  cease  my  opposition  to  the 
Presidential  scheme  ;  and  here  he  urged  that  the  election  which  made 
Gen.  Grant  President  had  been  carried  by  him  and  not  by  the  Repub 
lican  party,  so  that  his  desires  were  entitled  to  especial  attention.  In 
his  pressure  on  me  he  complained  that  I  had  opposed  other  projects  of 
the  President.  In  reply  to  my  inquiry  he  named  the  repeal  of  the  Ten- 
ure-of-Office  Act,  and  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Jones  as  Minister  to  Brus 
sels,  both  of  which  the  President  had  much  at  heart,  and  he  concluded 
with  the  Santo  Domingo  treaty.  I  assured  the  Secretary  firmly  and 
simply  that,  seeing  the  latter  as  I  did  with  all  its  surroundings,  my  duty 
was  plain,  and  that  I  must  continue  to  oppose  it  so  long  as  it  appeared 
to  me  wrong.  He  was  not  satisfied,  and  renewed  his  pressure  in  vari 
ous  forms,  returning  to  the  point  again  and  again  with  persevering  as 
siduity,  that  would  not  be  arrested,  when  at  last,  finding  me  inflexible, 
he  changed  his  appeal,  saying,  "  Why  not  go  to  London  ?  1  offer  you 
the  English  mission.  It  is  yours."  Of  his  authority  from  the  President 
I  know  nothing.  I  speak  only  of  what  he  said.  My  astonishment  was 


568  REMOVAL   OF   MR.    MOTLEY. 

heightened  by  indignation  at  this  too  palpable  attempt  to  take  me  from 
my  post  of  duty  ;  but  I  suppressed  the  feeling  which  rose  to  the  lips, 
and,  reflecting  that  he  was  an  old  friend  and  in  my  own  house,  answered 
gently,  "  We  have  a  Minister  there  who  cannot  be  bettered."  Thus 
already  did  the  mission  to  London  begin  to  pivot  on  Santo  Domingo. 

I  make  this  revelation  only  because  it  is  important  to  a  correct  un 
derstanding  of  the  case,  and  because  the  conversation  from  beginning 
to  end  was  official  in  character,  relating  exclusively  to  public  business, 
without  suggestion  or  allusion  of  a  personal  nature,  and  absolutely 
without  the  slightest  word  on  my  part  leading  in  the  most  remote  de 
gree  to  any  such  overture,  which  was  unexpected  as  undesired.  The 
offer  of  the  Secretary  was  in  no  respect  a  compliment  or  kindness,  but 
in  the  strict  line  of  his  endeavor  to  silence  my  opposition  to  the  Santo 
Domingo  scheme,  as  is  too  apparent  from  the  facts,  while  it  was  plain, 
positive,  and  unequivocal,  making  its  object  and  import  beyond  ques 
tion.  Had  it  been  merely  an  inquiry,  it  were  bad  enough  under  the 
circumstances,  but  it  was  direct  and  complete  as  by  a  plenipotentiary. 

Shortly  afterward,  being  the  day  immediately  following  the  rejection 
of  the  Santo  Domingo  Treaty,  Mr.  Motley  was  summarily  removed,  ac 
cording  to  present  pretence,  for  an  offending  not  only  trivial  and  formal, 
but  condoned  by  time,  being  a  year  old — very  much  as  Sir  Walter  Ra 
leigh,  after  being  released  from  the  Tower  to  conduct  a  distant  expedi 
tion  as  admiral  of  the  fleet,  was  at  his  return  beheaded  on  a  judgment 
of  fifteen  years'  standing.  The  Secretary  in  conversation  and  in  cor 
respondence  with  me  undertook  to  explain  the  removal,  insisting  for 
a  long  time  that  he  was  "  the  friend  of  Mr.  Motley  ;  "  but  he  always 
made  the  matter  worse,  while  the  heats  of  Santo  Domingo  entered  into 
the  discussion. 

At  last,  in  January,  1871,  a  formal  paper  justifying  the  removal  and 
signed  by  the  Secretary  was  laid  before  the  Senate.  Glancing  at  this 
document  I  found,  to  my  surprise,  that  its  most  salient  characteristic 
was  constant  vindictiveness  toward  Mr.  Motley,  with  effort  to  wound 
his  feelings,  and  this  was  signed  by  one  who  had  sat  with  him  at  my 
house  in  friendly  communion  and  common  aspiration  on  the  evening  of 
the  inauguration  of  Gen.  Grant,  and  had  so  often  insisted  that  he  was 
"  the  friend  of  Mr.  Motley  ;  "  while,  as  if  it  was  not  enough  to  insult 
one  Massachusetts  citizen  in  the  public  service,  the  same  document, 


569 

after  a  succession  of  flings  and  sneers,  makes  a  kindred  assault  on  me  ; 
and  this  is  signed  by  one  who  so  constantly  called  me  "friend,"  and 
asked  me  for  help.  The  Senator  from  Missouri  (Mr.  Schurz)  has 
already  directed  attention  to  this  assault,  and  has  expressed  his  judg 
ment  upon  it,  confessing  that  he  "should  not  have  failed  to  feel  the  in 
suit,"  and  then  exclaiming  with  just  indignation,  "  when  such  things  are 
launched  against  any  member  of  this  body,  it  becomes  the  American 
Senate  to  stand  by  him  and  not  to  attempt  to  disgrace  and  degrade  him 
because  he  shows  the  sensitiveness  of  a  gentleman."  (Congressional 
Globe  Debate,  of  March  10,  1871.)  It  is  easy  to  see  how  this  Senator 
regarded  the  conduct  of  the  Secretary.  Nor  is  its  true  character  open 
to  doubt,  especially  when  we  consider  the  context,  and  how  this  full 
blown  personality  naturally  flowered  out  of  the  whole  document. 

Mr.  Motley,  in  his  valedictory  to  the  State  Department,  had  alluded 
to  the  rumor  that  he  was  removed  on  account  of  my  opposition  to  the 
Santo  Domingo  Treaty.  The  document  signed  by  the  Secretary,  while 
mingling  most  offensive  terms  with  regard  to  his  "  friend  "  in  London, 
thus  turns  upon  his  "friend"  in  Washington  : 

"  It  remains  only  to  notice  Mr.  Motley's  adoption  of  a  rumor,  which 
had  its  origin  in  this  city  in  a  source  bitterly,  personally,  and  vindictive 
ly  hostile  to  the  President. 

"  Mr.  Motley  says  it  has  been  rumored  that  he  was  'removed  from 
the  post  of  Minister  to  England'  on  account  of  the  opposition  made  by 
an  'eminent  Senator  who  honors  me  (him)  with  his  friendship'  to  the 
Santo  Domingo  Treaty. 

"  Men  are  apt  to  attribute  the  causes  of  their  own  failures  or  their  own 
misfortunes  to  others  than  themselves,  and  to  claim  association  or  seek 
a  partnership  with  real  or  imaginary  greatness  with  which  to  divide  their 
sorrows  or  their  mistakes.  There  can  be  no  question  as  to  the  identity 
of  the  eminent  Senator  at  whose  door  Mr.  Motley  is  willing  to  deposit 
the  cause  of  his  removal.  But  he  is  entirely  mistaken  in  seeking  a 
vicarious  cause  of  his  loss  in  confidence  and  favor,  and  it  is  unworthy  of 
Mr.  Motley's  real  merit  and  ability,  and  injustice  to  the  venerable 
Senator  alluded  to  (to  whose  influence  and  urgency  he  was  originally 
indebted  for  his  nomination},  to  attribute  to  him  any  share  in  the  cause 
of  his  removal. 

"  Mr.  Motley  must  know,  or  if  he  does  not  know  it  he  stands  alone 
in  his  ignorance  of  the  fact,  that  many  Senators  opposed  the  Santo  Do 
mingo  Treaty  openly,  generously,  and  witli  as  tnucJi  efficiency  as  did  the 
distinguished  Senator  to  whom  he  refers,  and  have  nevertheless  con 
tinued  to  enjoy  the  undiminished  confidence  and  the  friendship  of  the  Presi 
dent,  than  whom  no  man  living  is  more  tolerant  of  honest  and  manly 
differences  of  opinion,  is  more  single  or  sincere  in  his  desire  for  the 


5/0  OFFICIAL   INSULTS   TO   THE   SENATOR. 

public  welfare,  is  more  disinterested  or  regardless  of  what  concerns  him 
self,  is  more  frank  and  confiding  in  his  own  dealings,  is  more  sensitive 
to  a  betrayal  of  confidence,  or  would  look  with  more  scorn  and  contempt 
upon  one  who  uses  the  words  and  assurances  of  friendship  to  cover  a 
secret  and  determined  purpose  of  hostility."  (Senate  Executive  Docu 
ment  No.  11,  pp.  36,  37,  XLIst  Congress.  Third  Session.) 

The  eulogy  of  the  President  here  is  at  least  singular,  when  it  is  con 
sidered  that  every  dispatch  of  the  Secretary  of  State  is  by  order  of  the 
President;  but  it  is  evident  that  the  writer  of  this  dispatch  had  made  up 
his  mind  to  set  all  rule  at  defiance.  If  beyond  paying  court  to  the  Presi 
dent,  even  at  the  expense  of  making  him  praise  himself,  the  concluding 
sentence  of  this  elaborate  passage,  so  full  of  gall  from  beginning  to  end, 
had  any  object,  if  it  were  anything  but  a  mountain  of  words,  it  was  an 
open  attempt  to  make  an  official  document  the  vehicle  of  personal  in 
sult  to  me,  and  this  personal  insult  was  signed  "  Hamilton  Fish."  As  1 
became  aware  of  it,  and  found  also  that  it  was  regarded  by  others  in  the 
same  light,  I  was  distressed  and  perplexed.  I  could  not  comprehend 
it.  I  knew  not  why  the  Secretary  should  step  so  far  out  of  his  way,  in 
a  manner  absolutely  without  precedent,  to  treat  me  with  ostentatious 
indignity,  especially  when  I  thought  that  for  years  I  had  been  his  friend, 
that  I  had  never  spoken  of  him  except  with  kindness,  and  that  con 
stantly  since  assuming  his  present  duties  he  had  turned  to  me  for  help. 
This  was  more  incomprehensible  when  I  considered  how  utterly  ground 
less  were  all  his  imputations.  I  have  lived  in  vain  if  such  an  attempt 
on  me  can  fail  to  rebound  on  its  author. 

Not  lightly  would  I  judge  an  ancient  friend.  For  a  time  I  said 
nothing  to  anybody  of  the  outrage,  hoping  that  perhaps  the  Secretary 
would  open  his  eyes  to  the  true  character  of  the  document  he  had 
signed,  and  volunteer  some  friendly  explanation.  Meanwhile  a  propo 
sition  to  resume  negotiations  was  received  from  England,  and  the  Sec 
retary,  it  seems,  desired  to  confer  with  me  on  the  subject ;  but  there 
was  evident  consciousness  on  his  part  that  he  had  done  wrong,  for,  in 
stead  of  coming  to  me  at  once,  he  sent  for  Mr.  Patterson  of  the  Senate, 
and  telling  him  that  he  wished  to  confer  with  me,  added  that  he  did  not 
know  precisely  what  were  his  relations  with  me,  and  how  I  should  re 
ceive  him.  Within  a  brief  fortnight  I  had  been  in  conference  with  him 
at  the  State  Department  and  had  dined  at  his  house,  beside  about  the 
same  time  making  a  call  there.  Yet  he  was  in  doubt  about  his  relations 
with  me.  Plainly  because  since  the  conference,  the  dinner,  and  the 


THE  SECRETARY'S  CONDUCT  SET  FORTH.  571 

call,  the  document  signed  by  him  had  been  communicated  to  the  Senate, 
and  the  conscience-struck  Secretary  did  not  know  how  I  should  take  it. 
Mr.  Patterson  asked  me  what  he  should  report.  I  replied,  that  should 
the  Secretary  come  to  my  house  he  would  be  received  as  an  old  friend, 
and  that  at  any  time  I  should  be  at  his  service  for  consultation  on  pub 
lic  business,  but  that  I  could  not  conceal  my  deep  sense  of  personal 
wrong  received  from  him  absolutely  without  reason  or  excuse.  That 
this  message  was  communicated  by  Mr.  Patterson,  I  cannot  doubt,  for 
the  Secretary  came  to  my  house  and  there  was  a  free  conference.  How 
frankly  I  spoke  on  public  questions  without  one  word  on  other  things, 
the  Secretary  knows.  He  will  remember  if  any  inquiry,  remark,  or  allu 
sion  escaped  from  me  except  in  reference  to  public  business.  The 
interview  was  of  business  and  nothing  else. 

On  careful  reflection,  it  seemed  to  me  plain,  that,  while  meeting  the 
Secretary  officially,  it  would  not  be  consistent  with  self-respect  for  me 
to  continue  personal  relations  with  one  who  had  put  his  name  to  a  docu 
ment,  which,  after  protracted  fury  toward  another,  contained  a  studied 
insult  to  me,  where  the  fury  is  intensified  rather  than  tempered  by  too 
obvious  premeditation.  Public  business  must  not  suffer  ;  but,  in  such 
a  case,  personal  relations  naturally  cease  ;  and  this  rule  1  have  followed 
since.  Is  there  any  Senator  who  would  have  done  less  ?  Are  there 
not  many  who  would  have  done  more  ?  I  am  at  a  loss  to  understand 
how  the  Secretary  could  expect  anything  beyond  those  official  relations 
which  I  declared  my  readiness  at  all  times  to  maintain,  and  which,  even 
after  his  assault  on  me,  he  was  willing  to  seek  at  my  own  house.  To 
expect  more  shows  on  his  part  grievous  insensibility  to  the  thing  he  had 
done.  Whatever  one  signs  he  makes  his  own,  and  the  Secretary,  when 
he  signed  this  document,  adopted  a  libel  upon  his  friend,  and  when  he 
communicated  it  to  the  Senate  he  published  the  libel.  Nothing  like  it 
can  be  shown  in  the  history  of  our  Government.  It  stands  alone.  The 
Secretary  is  alone.  Like  Jean  Paul  in  German  literature,  his  just  title 
will  be  "the  only  one."  For  years  I  have  known  Secretaries  of  State, 
and  often  differed  from  them,  but  never  before  did  I  receive  from  one 
anything  but  kindness.  Never  before  did  a  Secretary  of  State  sign  a 
document  libelling  an  associate  in  the  public  service,  and  publish  it  to 
the  world.  Never  before  did  a  Secretary  of  State  so  entirely  set  at 
defiance  every  sentiment  of  friendship.  It  is  impossible  to  explain  this 
strange  aberration  except  from  the  disturbing  influences  of  Santo 
Domingo.  But  whatever  its  origin,  its  true  character  is  beyond  question. 


572  OFFICIAL    MISREPRESENTATIONS. 

As  nothing  like  this  State  paper  can  be  shown  in  the  history  of  our 
Government,  so  also  nothing  like  it  can  be  shown  in  the  history  of 
other  governments.  Not  an  instance  can  be  named  in  any  country 
where  a  personage  in  corresponding  official  position  has  done  such  a 
thing.  The  American  Secretary  is  alone,  not  only  in  his  own  country, 
but  in  all  countries  ;  "  none  but  himself  can  be  his  parallel."  Seneca, 
in  the  Hercules  Furens,  has  pictured  him  : 

"  Qiueris  Alcicfoe  parem  ? 
Nemo  est  nisi  ipse." 

He  is  originator  and  first  inventor,  with  all  prerogatives  and  responsibili 
ties  thereto  belonging. 

I  have  mentioned  only  one  sally  in  this  painful  document ;  but  the 
whole,  besides  its  prevailing  offensiveness,  shows  inconsistency  with 
actual  facts  of  my  own  knowledge,  which  is  in  entire  harmony  with  the 
recklessness  toward  me,  and  attests  the  same  spirit  throughout.  Thus 
we  have  the  positive  allegation  that  the  death  of  Lord  Clarendon,  June 
27,  1870,  "determined  the  time  for  inviting  Mr.  Motley  to  make  place 
for  a  successor,"  when,  in  point  of  fact,  some  time  before  his  lordship's 
illness,  even  the  Secretary  had  invited  me  to  go  to  London  as  Mr.  Mot 
ley's  successor — thus  showing  that  the  explanation  of  Lord  Clarendon's 
death  was  an  after-thought  when  it  became  important  to  divert  attention 
from  the  obvious  dependence  of  the  removal  upon  the  defeat  of  the 
Santo  Domingo  treaty. 

A  kindred  inconsistency  arrested  the  attention  of  The  London  Times 
in  its  article  of  January  24,  1871,  on  the  document  signed  by  the  Secre 
tary.  Here,  according  to  this  journal,  the  document  supplied  the  means 
of  correction,  since  it  set  forth  that  on  the  25th  June,  two  days  before 
Lord  Clarendon's  death,  Mr.  Motley' scorning  removal  was  announced  in 
a  London  journal.  After  stating  the  alleged  dependence  of  the  removal 
upon  the  death  of  Lord  Clarendon,  the  journal,  holding  the  scales,  re 
marks,  "And  yet  there  is  at  least  one  circumstance  appearing,  strange 
to  say,  in  Mr.  Fish's  own  dispatch,  which  is  not  quite  consistent  with  the 
explanation  he  sets  up  of  Mr.  Motley's  recall."  Then,  after  quoting 
from  the  document,  and  mentioning  that  its  own  correspondent  at  Phila 
delphia  did,  on  the  25th  June,  "  send  us  a  message  that  Mr.  Motley  was 
about  to  be  withdrawn,"  the  journal  mildly  concludes  that  "  as  this  was 
t>vo  days  before  Lord  Clarendon's  death,  which  was  unforeseen  here,  and 


THE   TRUE   REASONS   FOR   MOTLEY'S    REMOVAL.          5/3 

could  not  have  been  expected  in  the  States,  it  is  difficult  to  connect  the 
resolution  to  supersede  the  late  American  Minister  with  the  change  at 
our  Foreign  Office."  The  difficulty  of  The.  Times  is  increased  by  the 
earlier  incident  with  regard  to  myself. 

Not  content  with  making  the  removal  depend  upon  the  death  of 
Lord  Clarendon  when  if  was  heralded  abroad,  not  only  before  the  death 
of  this  minister  had  occurred,  but  while  it  was  yet  unforeseen,  the  docu 
ment  seeks  to  antedate  the  defeat  of  the  Santo  Domingo  treaty,  so  as  to 
interpose  "weeks  and  months"  between  the  latter  event  and  the  re 
moval.  The  language  is  explicit.  ''The  treaty,"  says  the  document, 
"  was  admittedly  be  practically  dead,  and  was  only  wanting  the  formal 
action  of  the  Senate  for  weeks  and  months  before  the  decease  of  the 
illustrious  statesman  of  Great  Britain."  Weeks  and  months.  And  yet 
during  the  last  month,  when  the  treaty  "was  admitted  to  be  practically 
dead,"  the  Secretary  who  signed  the  document  passed  three  hours  at 
my  house,  pleading  with  me  to  withdraw  my  opposition,  and  finally 
wound  up  by  the  tender  to  me  of  the  English  mission,  with  no  other 
apparent  object  than  simply  to  get  me  out  of  the  way. 

Then  again  we  have  the  positive  allegation  that  the  President  em 
braced  an  opportunity  "  to  prevent  any  further  misapprehension  of  his 
views  through  Mr.  Motley  by  taking  from  him  the  right  to  discuss 
further  the  Alabama  claims,"  whereas  the  Secretary,  in  a  letter  to  me  at 
Boston,  dated  at  Washington,  Oct.  gth,  1869,  informs  me  that  the  dis 
cussion  of  the  question  was  withdrawn  from  London,  "  because  [the  ital 
ics  are  the  Secretary's]  we  think  that  when  renewed  it  can  be  carried  on 
here,  with  a  better  prospect  of  settlement,  than  where  the  late  attempt  at 
a  convention  which  resulted  so  disastrously  and  was  conducted  so  strange 
ly  was  had  ;"  and  what  the  Secretary  thus  wrote  he  repeated  in  conver 
sation  when  we  met,  carefully  making  the  transfer  to  Washington  depend 
upon  our  advantage  here,  from  the  presence  of  the  Senate — thus  show 
ing  that  the  pretext  put  forth  to  wound  Mr.  Motley  was  an  afterthought. 

Still  further,  the  document  signed  by  the  Secretary  alleges,  by  way  of 
excuse  for  removing  Mr.  Motley,  "  the  important  public  consideration 
of  having  a  representative  in  sympathy  with  the  President's  views," 
whereas,  when  the  Secretary  tendered  the  mission  to  me,  no  allusion 
was  made  to  "  sympathy  with  the  President's  views,"  while  Mr.  Motley, 
it  appears,  was  charged  with  agreeing  too  much  with  me — all  of  which 


574  A   Ft'LL   REVELATION   OF   THE    FACTS. 

shows  how  little  this  matter  had  to  do  with  the  removal,  and  how  much 
the  Santo  Domingo  business  at  the  time  was  above  any  question  of  con 
formity  on  other  things. 

In  the  amiable  passage  already  quoted  there  is  a  parenthesis  which 
breathes  the  prevailing  spirit.  By  way  of  aspersion  on  Mr.  Motley  and 
myself,  the  country  is  informed  that  he  was  indebted  for  his  nomination 
to  "influence  and  urgency"  on  my  part.  Of  the  influence  I  know 
nothing  ;  but  I  deny  positively  any  "urgency.''  I  spoke  with  the  Presi 
dent  on  this  subject  once  casually,  on  the  stairs  of  the  Executive  man 
sion,  and  then  again  in  a  formal  interview.  And  here,  since  the  effort 
of  the  Secretary,  I  shall  frankly  state  what  I  said  and  how  it  was  intro 
duced.  I  began  by  remarking  that,  with  the  permission  of  the  Presi 
dent,  I  should  venture  to  suggest  the  expediency  of  continuing  Mr. 
Marsh  in  Italy,  Mr.  Morris  at  Constantinople,  and  Mr.  Bancroft  at  Ber 
lin,  as  all  these  exerted  a  peculiar  influence  and  did  honor  to  our  coun 
try.  To  this  list  I  proposed  to  add  Dr.  Howe  of  Greece,  believing  that 
he,  too,  would  do  honor  to  our  country,  and  also  Mr.  Motley  in  Lon 
don,  who,  I  suggested,  would  have  an  influence  there  beyond  his  official 
position.  The  President  said  that  nobody  should  be  sent  to  London 
who  was  not  "  right  "  on  the  claims  question,  and  he  kindly  explained  to 
me  what  he  meant  by  "right."  From  this  time  I  had  no  conversation 
with  him  about  Mr,  Motley,  until  after  the  latter  had  left  for  his  post, 
when  the  President  volunteered  to  express  his  great  satisfaction  in  the 
appointment.  Such  was  the  extent  of  my  "urgency;"  nor  was  I 
much  in  advance  of  the  Secretary  at  that  time,  for  he  showed  me  what 
was  called  the  "  brief"  at  the  State  Department  for  the  English  mission, 
with  Mr.  Motley's  name  at  the  head  of  the  list. 

Other  allusions  to  myself  would  be  cheerfully  forgotten  if  they  were 
not  made  the  pretext  to  assail  Mr.  Motley,  who  is  held  to  severe  ac 
count  for  supposed  dependence  on  me.  If  this  were  crime,  not  the 
Minister  but  the  Secretary  should  suffer,  for  it  is  the  Secretary  and  not 
the  Minister  who  appealed  to  me  constantly  for  help,  often  desiring  me 
to  think  for  him,  and  more  than  once  to  hold  the  pen  for  him.  But 
forgetting  his  own  relations  with  me,  the  Secretary  turns  upon  Mr.  Mot 
ley,  who  never  asked  me  to  think  for  him  or  to  hold  the  pen  for  him. 
Other  things  the  Secretary  also  forgot.  He  forgot  that  the  blow  he 
dealt,  whether  at  Mr.  Motley  or  myself,  rudely  tore  the  veil  from  the 
past,  so  far  as  its  testimony  might  be  needed  in  elucidation  of  the  truth  ; 


BUHNER'S  RELATIONS  WITH  SECRETARY  FISH.       575 

that  the  document  he  signed  was  a  challenge  and  provocation  to  meet 
him  on  the  facts,  without  reserve  or  concealment ;  that  the  wantonness 
of  assault  on  Mr.  Motley  was  so  closely  associated  with  that  on  me, 
that  any  explanation  that  I  might  make  must  be  a  defence  of  him  ; 
that  even  if  duty  to  the  Senate  and  myself  did  not  require  this  ex 
planation,  there  are  other  duties  not  to  be  disregarded,  among  which 
is  duty  to  the  absent,  who  cannot  be  pennitte.d  to  suffer  unjustly — 
duty  to  a  much-injured  citizen  of  Massachusetts,  who  may  properly 
look  to  a  Senator  of  his  State  for  protection  against  official  wrong — 
duty  also  to  a  public  servant  insulted  beyond  precedent,  who  besides 
writing  and  speaking  most  effectively  for  the  Republican  party  and  for 
this  Administration,  has  added  to  the  renown  of  our  country  by  unsur 
passed  success  in  literature,  commending  him  to  the  gratitude  and  good 
will  of  all.  These  things  the  Secretary  strangely  forgot  when  he  dealt 
a  blow  which  tore  the  vail. 

The  crime  of  the  Minister  was  dependence  on  me.  So  says  the 
State  paper.  A  simple  narrative  will  show  who  is  the  criminal.  My 
early  relations  with  the  Secretary  have  already  appeared,  and  how  he 
began  by  asking  me  for  help,  practising  constantly  on  this  appeal.  A 
few  details  will  be  enough.  At  once  on  his  arrival  to  assume  his  new 
duties  he  asked  my  counsel  about  appointing  Mr.  Bancroft  Davis  Assis 
tant  Secretary  of  State,  and  I  advised  the  appointment,  without  suffi 
cient  knowledge  I  am  inclined  to  believe  now.  Then  followed  the 
questions  with  Spain  growing  out  of  Cuba,  which  were  the  subject  of 
constant  conference,  where  he  sought  me  repeatedly  and  kindly  listened 
to  my  opinions.  Then  came  the  instructions  for  the  English  mission 
known  as  the  dispatch  of  May  16,  1869.  At  each  stage  of  these  in 
structions  I  was  in  the  counsels  of  the  Secretary.  Following  my  sug 
gestion  he  authorized  me  to  invite  Mr.  Motley  in  his  name  to  prepare 
the  "  memoir  "  or  essay  on  our  claims,  which,  notwithstanding  its  en 
tirely  confidential  character,  he  drags  before  the  world,  for  the  purpose 
of  assault,  in  a  manner  clearly  unjustifiable.  Then,  as  the  dispatch 
was  preparing,  he  asked  my  help  especially  in  that  part  relating  to  the 
concession  of  belligerent  rights.  I  have  here  the  first  draft  of  this  im 
portant  passage  in  pencil  and  in  my  own  handwriting,  varying  in  no  es 
sential  respect  from  that  adopted.  Here  will  be  found  the  distinction 
on  which  I  have  always  insisted,  that  while  other  Powers  conceded 
belligerent  rights  to  our  rebels,  it  was  in  England  only  that  the  con 
cession  was  supplemented  by  acts  causing  direct  damage  to  the  United 


576  MOTLEY'S  OFFICIAL  CONDUCT. 

States.  Not  long  afterward,  in  August.  1869,  when  the  British  storm 
had  subsided,  I  advised  that  the  discussion  should  be  renewed  by  an  elab 
orate  communication,  setting  forth  our  case  in  length  and  breadth,  but 
without  any  estimate  of  damages,  throwing  upon  England  the  opportunity, 
if  not  the  duty,  of  making  some  practical  proposition.  Adopting  this 
recommendation,  the  Secretary  invited  me  to  write  the  dispatch.  [ 
thought  it  better  that  it  should  be  done  by  another,  and  I  named  for 
this  purpose  an  accomplished  gentleman,  whom  I  knew  to  be  familiar 
with  the  question,  and  he  wrote  the  dispatch.  This  paper,  bearing  date 
Sept.  25,  1869,  is  unquestionably  the  ablest  in  the  history  of  the  pre 
sent  Administration,  unless  we  except  the  last  dispatch  of  Mr. 
Motley. 

In  a  letter  dated  at  Washington,  Oct.  15,  1869,  and  addressed  to  me 
at  Boston,  the  Secretary  describes  this  paper  in  the  following  terms  : 
"  The  dispatch  to  Motley  (which  I  learn  by  a  telegram  from  him  has 
been  received)  is  a  calm,  jfo//  review  of  our  entire  case,  making  no  de 
mand,  no  valuation  of  damages,  but  I  believe  covering  all  the  ground 
and  all  the  points  that  have  been  made  on  our  side.  I  hope  that  it  will 
meet  your  views.  I  think  it  will.  It  leaves  the  question  with  Great 
Britain  to  determine  when'  any  negotiations  are  to  be  renewed."  The 
Secretary  was  right  in  his  description.  It  was  "a  full  review  of  our 
whole  case  ; "  "  covering  all  the  ground  and  all  the  points  ;  "  and  it  did 
meet  my  views,  as  the  Secretary  thought  it  would,  specially  where  it 
arraigned  so  strongly  that  fatal  concession  of  belligerent  rights  on  the 
ocean,  which  in  any  faithful  presentment  of  the  national  cause,  will 
always  be  the  first  stage  of  evidence,  since  without  this  precipitate  and 
voluntary  act,  the  common  law  of  England  was  a  positive  protection 
against  the  equipment  of  a  corsair  ship,  or  even  the  supply  of  a  blockade 
runner  for  unacknowledged  rebels.  The  conformity  of  this  dispatch 
with  my  view's  was  recognized  by  others  besides  the  Secretary.  It  is 
well  known  that  Lord  Clarendon  did  not  hesitate  in  familiar  conversation 
to  speak  of  it  as  "Mr.  Simmer's  speech  over  again  ;  "  while  another 
.English  personage  said  that  "it  out-Sumnered  Simmer."  And  yet  with 
his  name  signed  to  this  dispatch,  written  at  my  suggestion,  and  in  entire 
conformity  with  my  views,  as  admitted  by  him  and  recognized  by  the 
English  Government,  the  Secretary  taunts  Mr.  Motley  for  supposed 
harmony  with  me  on  this  very  question.  This  taunt  is  still  more  un 
natural  when  it  is  known  that  this  dispatch  is  in  similar  conformity  with 
the  "  memoir  "  of  Mr.  Motley,  and  was  evidently  written  with  knowl- 


OUR   INSULTED   MINISTER.  577 

edge  of  that  admirable  document,  where    the   case  of  our  country  is 
stated  with  perfect  mastery.     But  the  story  does  not  end  here. 

On  the  communication  of  this  dispatch  to  the  British  Government, 
Mr.  Thornton  was  instructed  to  ascertain  what  would  be  accepted  by 
our  Government,  when  the  Secretary,  under  date  of  Washington,  Nov. 
6,  1869,  reported  to  me  this  application,  and  then,  after  expressing  un 
willingness  to  act  on  it  until  he  "  could  have  an  opportunity  of  consult 
ing"  me,  he  wrote,  '-When  will  you  be  here  ?  Will  you  either  note  what 
you  think  will  be  sufficient  to  meet  the  views  of  the  Senate  and  of  the 
country,  or  will  you  formulate  such  proposition  ?"  After  this  respon 
sible  commission,  the  letter  winds  up  with  the  earnest  request :  "  Let 
me  hear  from  you  as  soon  as  you  can  (the  italics  are  the  Secretary's),  and 
I  should  like  to  confer  with  you  at  the  earliest  convenient  time."  On 
my  arrival  at  Washington  the  Secretary  came  to  my  house  at  once,  and 
we  conferred  freely.  Santo  Domingo  had  not  yet  sent  its  shadow  into 
his  soul. 

It  is  easily  seen  that  here  was  constant  and  reiterated  appeal  to  me, 
especially  on  our  negotiations  with  England,  and  yet  in  the  face  of  this 
testimony,  where  he  is  the  unimpeachable  witness,  the  Secretary  is 
pleased  to  make  Mr.  Motley's  supposed  relations  with  me  the  occasion 
of  insult  to  him,  while,  as  if  this  were  not  enough,  he  crowns  his  work 
with  personal  assault  on  me — all  of  which,  whether  as  regards  Mr. 
Motley  or  me,  is  beyond  comprehension. 

How  little  Mr.  Motley  merited  anything  but  respect  and  courtesy 
from  the  Secretary,  is  attested  by  all  who  know  his  eminent  position  in 
London,  and  the  service  he  rendered  to  his  country.  Already  the 
London  press,  usually  slow  to  praise  Americans  when  strenuous  for 
their  country,  has  furnished  its  voluntary  testimony.  The  Daily  News 
of  August  1 6,  1870,  spoke  of  the  insulted  Minister  in  these  terms  : 

We  are  violating  no  confidence  in  saying  that  all  the  hopes  of  Mr. 
Motley's  official  residence  in  England  have  been  amply  fulfilled,  and 
that  the  announcement  of  his  unexpected  and  unexplained  recall  was 
received  with  extreme  astonishment  and  unfeigned  regret.  The  vacancy 
he  leaves  cannot  possibly  be  filled  by  a  Minister  more  sensitive  to  the 
honor  of  his  Government,  more  attentive  to  the  interests  of  his  country, 
and  more  capable  of  uniting  the  most  rigorous  performance  of  his  public 
duties  with  the  high-bred  courtesy  and  conciliatory  tact  and  temper  that 
37 


5/8  SACRIFICE   OF  SENATOR  AND   MINISTER. 

make  those  duties  easy  and  successful.  Mr.  Motley's  successor  will 
find  his  mission  wonderfully  facilitated  by  the  firmness  and  discretion 
that  have  presided  over  the  conduct  of  American  affairs  in  this  country 
during  too  brief  a  term,  too  suddenly  and  unaccountably  concluded. 

The  London  press  had  not  the  key  to  this  extraordinary  transaction. 
It  knew  not  the  potency  of  the  Santo  Domingo  spell ;  nor  its  strange 
influence  over  the  Secretary,  even  breeding  insensibility  to  instinctive 
amenities,  and  awakening  peculiar  unfriendliness  to  Mr.  Motley,  so 
amply  certified  afterward  in  an  official  document  under  his  own  hand — 
all  of  which  burst  forth  with  more  than  the  tropical  luxuriance  of  the 
much-coveted  island. 

I  cannot  disguise  the  sorrow  with  which  I  offer  this  explanation.  In 
self-defence,  and  for  the  sake  of  truth,  do  I  now  speak.  I  have  culti 
vated  forbearance,  and  hoped  from  the  bottom  of  my  heart  that  I  might 
do  so  to  the  end.  But  beyond  the  call  of  the  public  press  has  been  the 
defiant  challenge  of  Senators,  and  also  the  consideration  sometimes 
presented  by  friends,  that  my  silence  might  be  misinterpreted.  Tardily 
and  most  reluctantly  I  make  this  record,  believing  it  more  a  duty  to  the 
Senate  than  to  myself,  but  a  plain  duty  to  be  performed  in  all  simplicity 
without  reserve.  Having  nothing  to  conceal,  and  willing  always  to  be 
judged  by  the  truth,  I  court  the  fullest  inquiry,  and  shrink  from  no  con 
clusion  founded  on  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  case. 

If  this  narration  enables  any  one  to  see  in  clearer  light  the  injustice 
done  to  Mr.  Motley,  then  have  I  performed  a  further  duty  too  long 
postponed ;  nor  will  it  be  doubted  by  any  honest  nature,  that  since  the 
assault  of  the  Secretary,  he  was  entitled  to  that  vindication  which  is 
found  in  a  statement  of  facts  within  my  own  knowledge.  Anything 
short  of  this  would  be  a  license  to  the  Secretary  in  his  new  style  of 
State  paper,  which,  for  the  sake  of  the  public  service  and  of  good-will 
among  men,  must  be  required  to  stand  alone,  in  the  isolation  which  be 
comes  its  abnormal  character.  Plainly  without  precedent  in  the  past, 
it  must  be  without  chance  of  repetition  in  the  future. 

Here  I  stop.  My  present  duty  is  performed  when  I  set  forth  the 
simple  facts,  exhibiting  those  personal  relations  which  have  been  drawn 
in  question,  without  touching  the  questions  of  principle  behind. 

TllUS HE  BEING  DEAD  YET  SPEAKETH. 


SENATOR  WILSON'S   WISE   COUNSELS.  579 

From  The  Boston  Globe  we  extract  :— 

The  following  letter  from  Vice-President  Wilson,  written  while  he  was  Senator,  is 
interesting  as  corroborating  the  statements  in  Sumner's  suppressed  speech.  This  let 
ter  was  written  only  eight  days  after  the  death  of  Lord  Clarendon,  the  event  which, 
according  to  Secretary  Fish,  fixed  the  time  for  Motley's  removal.  The  letter  was 
written  "after  much  reflection."  The  report  of  the  contemplated  removal  must 
have  gained  circulation  and  credit  more  than  a  week  before  the  date  of  the  letter  to 
have  enabled  Wilson  to  give  much  attention  to  it. 

UNITED  STATES  SENATE  CHAMBER,  ) 
WASHINGTON,  July  5,  1870.          ) 

PRESIDENT  GRANT — Dear  Sir :  After  much  reflection  I  have  decided  that  duty 
demands  that  I  should  write  to  you  my  views  touching  the  proposed  removal  of  Mr. 
Motley.  I  fear  you  will  make  a  sad  mistake  if  you  remove  him,  and  I  beg  of  you  to 
consider  the  case  carefully  before  acting.  His  removal  is  believed  to  be  aimed  at  Mr. 
Sumner.  Right  or  wrong,  this  will  be  the  construction  put  upon  it.  Can  you,  my 
dear  Sir,  afford  to  have  such  an  imputation  rest  upon  your  administration?  Mr. 
Motley  is  one  of  the  best  known  and  most  renowned  of  our  countrymen.  In  letters 
he  is  recognized  as  one  of  the  foremost  living  authors  of  our  country  or  of  the  world. 
Office  can  add  little  to  his  reputation.  Removal  from  office,  while  it  will  wound  his 
feelings,  will  not  affect  his  standing  among  the  most  cultivated  of  the  age.  I  assure 
you,  my  dear  Sir,  that  the  men  of  Massachusetts,  who  gave  you  more  than  75,000 
majority,  are  proud  to  number  Mr.  Motley  among  their  most  loved  and  honored  sons. 
They  remember  that  during  the  war  his  pen,  voice,  and  social  influence  and  position 
were  on  the  side  of  his  struggling  country.  They  were  grateful  to  you  for  his  appoint 
ment  as  Minister  to  England.  I  need  not  say  that  they  are  surprised  at  the  rumor 
that  he  is  to  be  removed.  They  are  pained  to  have  it  said  that  his  removal  is  on 
account  of  Mr.  Simmer's  opposition  to  the  Santo  Domingo  treaty.  His  removal 
will  be  regarded  by  the  Republicans  of  Massachusetts  as  a  blow  not  only  at  him,  but 
at  Mr.  Sumner. 

There  has  been  much  feeling  about  the  treaty.  Imprudent  words  have  been  ut 
tered,  as  they  always  are  when  men's  feelings  are  excited.  Perhaps  Mr.  Sumner  may 
have  said  things  that  may  have  been  distasteful  to  you,  but  the  people  of  Massachu 
setts  are  with  him  as  ten  to  one.  Holding  on  general  principles  that  the  prominent 
interests  of  the  country  would  be  advanced  by  a  foothold  in  the  Gulf,  and  wishing  to 
sustain  your  Administration  whenever  I  could  do  so,  I  voted  for  the  treaty,  though  I 
knew  that  nine-tenths  of  the  people  of  my  State  were  against  it,  I  had  nothing  to 
gain  and  something  to  lose  by  such  a  vote.  I  am  ready  to  take  the  consequences  of 
that  vote,  but  I  am  not  insensible  to  the  fact  that  the  dismissal  of  Mr.  Motley,  under 
present  circumstances,  will  not  only  be  a  loss  to  your  Administration,  but  a  blow  to 
me.  Personally,  I  ask  nothing,  but  I  do  entreat  you,  before  acting,  to  look  well  to 
the  matter.  Your  Administration  is  menaced  by  great  opposition,  and  it  needs  peace 
and  unity  among  the  people  and  in  Congress.  The  head  of  a  great  party,  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States  has  much  to  forget  and  forgive,  but  he  can  afford  to  be 
magnanimous  and  forgiving.  I  want  to  see  the  President  and  Congress  in  harmony, 
and  the  Republican  party  united  and  victorious.  To  accomplish  this,  we  must  all  be 
just,  charitable,  and  forgiving.  Very  truly, 

HENRY  WILSON. 


580  SUMNER'S  BRIEF  MARRIED  LIFE. 


IV. 

This  seems  also  to  be  the  proper  place  to  allude  to 
Mr.  SUMNER'S  unfortunate  marriage,  but  fortunately  brief 
married  life.  In  speaking  of  it,  the  Boston  Journal 
holds  the  following  discreet  language : 

At  this  period  of  his  life — 1866 — the  friends  of  Mr.  Sumner  were 
much  gratified  by  the  announcement  of  his  marriage  with  the  widow  of 
a  son  of  Hon.  Samuel  Hooper,  formerly  Miss  Mason  of  Boston.  The 
union,  however,  proved  unfortunate,  and  a  separation  by  mutual  con 
sent  soon  followed,  involving  no  diminution  of  respect  to  Mr.  Sumner 
on  the  part  of  those  best  acquainted  with  the  circumstances.  Though 
thus  deprived  of  the  crowning  felicities  of  a  home,  his  house,  with  its 
rare  treasures  of  literature  and  art,  and  its  host,  ever  far  more  genial  in 
private  than  his  somewhat  austere  public  life  indicated,  continued  to  be 
one  of  the  most  attractive  in  Washington. 

V. 

It  is  a  dangerous  experiment,  after  a  certain  period  of 
life, — especially  such  a  life  as  a  very  great  man,  with  con 
firmed  habits  of  seclusion  and  study,  must  lead — to  go  out 
into  a  new  world,  so  foreign  to  the  one  he  had  lived  in 
so  long,  and  leave  forever  the  temple  around  whose 
altars  are  hung  all  the  garlands  of  triumph,  and  the 
wreaths  of  an  early  love ;  for  the  new  life  can  never  be 
what  once  it  miofht  have  been.  Nor  should  it  be  too 

o 

rashly  assumed,  that  amongst  this  class,  however  few 
may  be  their  number,  there  is  a  single  life  unhallowed 
by  romantic  souvenirs.  They  may  be  buried  away  out  of 
sight  from  all  others,  deep  under  the  fallen  leaves  of 
many  years ;  but  they  are  all  still  there,  tremulous  to 
every  sweep  of  Memory's  wing. 

In  such  cases,  the  tenderness  that  is  still  cherished,  to 


PURE   AND   BEAUTIFUL   LOVE   FOR   A   MOTHER.  581 

all  appearances  in  vain,  for  the  departed  one,  takes  a 
new  direction ;  and  the  love  for  such  a  mother  as 
CHARLES  SUMNER  had,  may  grow  dearer  with  each 
coming  year.  Each  new  silver  hair,  slowly  stealing  in 
among  the  tresses  of  fresher  days,  only  clothes  the 
head  with  the  charm  of  a  new  consecration.* 

There  is  nothing  strange  that  such  men  are  passion 
ately  admired  by  gifted  and  beautiful  women.  The 
native  gallantry  of  a  fine  soul,  however,  may  often  be 
somewhat  quenched  by  too  constant  a  familiarity  with 
something  that  falls  far  below  the  divine  ideal,  for  this 
finds  its  best  impersonation  in  the  gentleness  which 
makes  each  man's  mother  a  Madonna — something  holier 

o 

than  a  mere  woman — something  apart  from  the  other 
million  of  women,  gentle  as  may  be  the  rustling  of  the 
wings  of  the  common  flock. 

And  so,  in  a  single  life,  where  memory  goes  back  fond 
ly  to  this  ideal  that  has  lived  so  long,  it  finds  its  most  ex 
pressive  limnings  in  the  indefinable  grace  of  a  gentle  and 
beautiful  mother.  This,  in  such  a  man,  becomes  a 
heroine-worship,  which  may  be  as  sacred  in  the  mascu 
line  soul,  and  sublimer,  than  the  dewy  love  of  girlhood's 
morninor. 

o 

*  A  similar — nearly  a  parallel  case — inspired  these  verses,  addressed  as  a  little 
Christmas  carol,  to  a  very  venerable,  but  still  radiantly  beautiful  lady,  who  did  so 
much  to  brighten  the  life  of  the  writer  : 

So  gently  has  Old  Father  Time  His  fingers  now  seem  soft  and  warm  ; 

Laid  his  cold  fingers  on  thy  head,  The  ice  has  melted  from  his  frosty  hand  ; 

I  fain  would  ring  for  him  another  chime,  His  touch  passed  gently  o'er  thy  faultless  form, 

For  he  grows  young  in  thee — there  are  no  dead.     He  must  have  breathed  on  thee  from  Summer  Land. 

And  so  the  years  go  harmless  by  thee, 

Leaving  no  sign  but  shining  silver  hair ; 
And  this,  thy  beauty's  touching  coronal, 

Is  the  sole  proof  he  has  been  there. 


582  WHEN   MARRIAGE   IS   A   LEAP   IN  THE  DARK. 


VI. 


When  life  has  gone  on  so  long  in  this  way,  and  the 
brave,  manly  soul  has  preserved  enshrined  this  worship 
of  woman  in  a  mother's  form,  and  it  has  filled  the  tem 
ple  of  home  with  so  much  of  the  charm  of  the  sunniest 
matrimony, — without  its  fretting  cares,  and  its  vulgar  and 
corroding  passions — to  marry  then  is  a  leap  in  the  dark : 
—the  more  so,  when,  through  disparity  of  age,  the  gid 
diness  and  absorption  of  early  selfishness  graze  rather 
harshly  on  the  soberer  serenity  of  the  quiet  afternoon  of 
life,  and  set  the  sensitive  nerves  trembling.  The  hazard 
is  still  greater  if  it  be  a  widow — and  above  all,  a  young 
one — that  becomes  the  new  wife.  If  just  one  million  of 
such  marriages  were  to  pass  before  me  in  judgment,  I 
should  exempt  that  million  of  brides  from  all  blame  in 
the  inevitable  consequences  that  must  follow  this  unna 
tural  wedding  of  Winter  and  Spring ;  or  better  still,  of 
Spring  and  Autumn,  for  they  are  still  further  asunder 
than  the  two  other  seasons.  All  this  I  believe  to  be 
literally  true  :  but  in  saying  it,  I  feel  very  much  as  boys 
do  when  they  know  they  are  skating  over  thin  ice ;  and 
so  the  quicker  the  safer. 


VII. 


It  would  be  difficult  to  conceive  of  circumstances  more 
auspicious  for  intellectual  culture,  than  those  which  sur 
rounded  the  life  of  CHARLES  SUMNER.  I  have  else 
where  spoken  of  some  of  them ;  but  the  enumeration 
would  be  far  from  complete  if  I  omitted  the  most  im 
portant  one,  perhaps,  of  all — personal  social  freedom  : 


MARRIAGE   NOT  ALWAYS   BEST.  583 

for,  with  a  brief  interval,  all  through  life  he  was  master 
of  his  own  time,  and  of  his  own  mind. 

However  much  we  may  praise  marriage, — however 
sacred  it  maybe  as  a  divine  institution. — however  beau 
tiful  the  fruits  which  so  often  grow  in  the  garden  of  wed 
ded  love, — however  indispensable  the  institution  of  fam 
ily  to  the  fair  superstructure  of  civilization,  and  however 
great  the  blessings  that  flow  from  married  life, — yet  it  is 
not  so  unmixed  a  blessing  necessarily,  as  not  to  preclude 
in  some  instances,  the  acquisition  of  higher  possessions 
than  ordinarily  consist  with  the  married  state. 

This  is  especially  so,  in  those  cases  where  an  early 
disappointment,  for  a  long  time,  if  not  forever  afterwards, 
diverts  the  mind  from  social  pleasure  to  the  cultivation 
of  such  pursuits  as  find  their  best  realization  only  where 
they  engross  all  the  powers  of  the  being.  It  is  not  only 
possible,  but  we  constantly  witness  instances,  where  the 
highest  powers  for  achievement  in  learning,  in  explora 
tion,  and  discovery — and  in  many  other  fields  of  unself 
ish  effort, — are  brought  into  play  for  the  good  of  mankind, 
that  we  never  should  have  heard  of,  if  such  capacities 
and  endowments  had  been  engrossed  in  the  endearments 
of  love,  and  the  sweet  charities  of  home.  It  is  altogether 
out  of  the  question  for  any  man  to  do  full  justice  to  the 
absorbing  cares  of  married  life, — filling  all  its  duties  com 
pletely,  and  generously, — to  find  time  for  doing  his  best 
through  a  lifetime  at  anything  else.  Love  is  exacting ; 
and  the  instances  are  very  rare  in  which  women  have 
been  willing  to  waive  devotion  to  themselves,  that  their 
husbands  might  accomplish  some  great  purpose. 

And  therefore  the  mystery  all  vanishes,  which  has 
been  supposed  to  hang  over  the  infelicities  of  married 
life,  among  men  of  genius.  It  ought  to  be  a  matter  of 


584        ADVANTAGES  OF  PERSONAL  FREEDOM. 

no  surprise  that  SOCRATES  had  his  Xantippe ;  that  MIL 
TON  had  no  sympathizer  in  his  own  family  with  Paradise 
Lost;  that  COLUMBUS  should  have  had  a  discontented 
wife  ;  or  that  the  thousand  and  one  great  men  who  have 
done  the  hardest  and  the  best  work  yet  accomplished 
on  the  earth,  should  have  found  their  home-gardens 
pretty  much  overrun  with  weeds.  This  implies  nothing  in 
derogation  of  the  charms  of  woman,  for  such  marriages 
might  be  expected  to  be  unhappy.  It  is  well  for  men 
gifted  in  so  extraordinary  a  degree,  not  to  marry.  Lord 
COKE  said,  "  Law  is  a  jealous  mistress  ;  "  and  for  that 
matter,  so  is  every  other  science,  art,  or  pursuit  which 
will  not  yield  up  its  choicest  fruits  to  anything  but  abso 
lute  dedication.* 

*  The  whole  story  is  well  told  by  a  friend  of  ours  who  favored  us  with  a  glance  at 
that  chapter  of  his  autobiography  devoted  to  an  account  of  \i\$  first  year  of  enforced 
^reedom  from  the  engrossing  cares  of  married  life.  Marrying  very  young  a  most 
beautiful  and  charming  girl,  who  became  the  mother  of  his  children,  and  the  presiding 
divinity  of  the  temple  of  home,  where  he  worshipped,  his  heart  never  strayed,  nor 
was  hers  ever  alienated.  Encountering  trials  enough,  it  is  true,  in  the  strife  of  life, 
but  that  life  filled  always  with  the  sunshine  of  love  ;  with  far  more  than  an  average 
share  of  good  fortune ;  thirty-seven  years  of  such  happiness  as  are  seldom  witnessed 
in  succession,  marked  and  rounded  out  a  beautiful  existence.  All  his  affection  was 
in  his  home  ;  his  heart  was  bound  up  in  his  wife  and  children.  All  that  intellectual 
and  social  culture  could  do,  had  been  done  for  them  all.  In  every  land  where  they 
traveled,  and  in  every  circle  where  they  moved,  they  presented  an  exceptional  instance 
of  domestic  happiness. 

With  a  fondness  for  literature  and  science,  and  rare  opportunities  for  their  culture, 
they  never  impaired,  in  the  faintest  degree,  his  love  as  a  father  or  a  husband — he  was 
an  idolater  of  wife  and  children.  But  some  very  strange  and  unfortunate  occur 
rences  took  place,  reflecting  no  dishonor,  or  even  discredit,  but  being  simply  a  sheer 
misfortune.  A  visit  to  a  distant  relation  was  prolonged  through  the  malign  influence 
of  other  parties,  into  temporary  abandonment  at  least,  and  it  were  a  long,  sad  tale 
to  tell. 

His  love  had  not  been  impaired,  and  in  the  utter  desolation  of  his  spirit,  he  was 
driven  to  the  verge  of  madness.  But  summoning  all  the  strength  of  his  character, 
and  all  the  pride  of  his  manhood,  he  betook  himself  to  his  studies,  and  buried,  as  far 
as  he  could,  every  thought  of  the  past,  in  exclusive  devotion  to  his  beloved  pursuits. 

After  a  long  time  the  storm  passed — the  victory  was  achieved  ;  and  becoming  once 
more  master  of  his  own  mind  and  of  his  own  time,  the  amount  of  work  he  performed, 


SUMNER'S  ONE  ALL-ENGROSSING  LOVE.  585 

It  may  be  urged  that  celibacy  fosters  egotism  and 
selfishness — and  in  many  cases  it  does.  It  need  not  be 
so,  nor  will  it  if  the  person,  be  it  man  or  woman,  is  dedi 
cated  to  the  service  of  humanity.  Women  like  FLORENCE 
NIGHTINGALE,  and  a  myriad  of  bright  names  that  have 
adorned  the  single  life  of  convent,  and  the  active  duties 
of  charity,  have  not  made  hard-hearted  women.  Such 
lives  as  HOWARD  and  LIVINGSTONE  led,  did  not  make 
hard-hearted  men.  In  the  prosecution  of  such  pursuits, 
very  little  food  is  found  for  nurturing  egotism  and  self 
ishness.  It  was  fortunate  for  humanity,  and  fortunate 
beyond  estimate  for  the  colored  race,  that  CHARLES 
SUMNER  had  but  one  all-engrossing  love,  and  that  this 
love  was  for  his  brother  man. 

and  its  superb  quality,  became  absolutely  incredible.  Having  passed  through  sorrow 
without  bringing  any  of  the  bitterness  of  it  away  with  him,  and  having  recovered  his 
primitive  health  and  strength,  which  had  drooped  for  a  while,  he  thus  describes  the 
position  in  which  he  found  himself : 

"  Personal  Freedom. — No  more  annihilation  of  time  in  what  I  have  at  last  discov 
ered  were  but  the  harassing  cares  and  frivolous  occupations  of  married  life.  The  sweet 
charities  of  domestic  bliss  have  indeed  fled ;  but  in  the  large  space  they  once  filled, 
I  find  ample  verge  and  room  enough  for  sturdier,  healthier  and  fresher  plants  to 
grow  ;  plants  which  will  return  with  the  infallibility  of  eternal  law,  the  fruit  earned 
by  diligence  and  generosity  of  culture." 

He  was  master  of  his  own  time,  and  of  his  own  mind  ;  and  for  the  first  time  since  his 
college  days  he  says,  "  I  had  not  thought  of  this,  till  E.'s  last  letter,  in  which  I  was  told 
that  I  had  been  unqualifiedly  discarded  forever.  Free  ?  It  was  a  new  idea — so  new 
that  I  did  not  altogether  take  it  in  :  nor  have  I,  yet.  But  it  will  gradually  unfold  itself, 
I  think.  Why  ! — only  fancy  how  free  I  shall  be — every  one  of  the  twenty-four  hours 
of  each  day  all  my  own  :  with  none  of  the  old  calls  to  duty  ;  no  unwelcome  people 
to  meet ;  no  little  thing  to  *  get ;  '  no  ungrateful  gossip  to  hear  ;  no  irritating,  hard, 
cold,  or  bitter  remarks,  lightly  dropped,  but  sharper  than  needles  !  No  forebodings 
about  what  may  happen  ;  no  apprehensions  of  future  poverty  ;  above  all,  the  conscious 
ness  that  no  whole  day,  nor  hour,  was  absolutely  at  my  own  control  !  But  to  go  to 
bed  only  when  I  feel  like  it,  to  get  up  only  when  I  am  ready  :  to  go  out,  and  come 
in,  to  read  when,  where,  and  what  I  please ;  and  walk  or  ride,  or  talk,  or  be  silent ; 
above  all,  perhaps,  to  have  my  own  hours  for  communion  with  my  own  soul,  as 
everybody  should  have  : — all  this  ! — it  seemed  too  much  ;  more  than  I  had  deserved, 
more  than  I  have  even  yet  learned  how  to  use.  Oh  ! — is  it  possible  that  I  can  feel 
far  enough  away  from  the  sight  of  the  cruel  coast  where  my  lifeboat  went  to 


586        SETTLEMENT  WITH  ENGLAND   BY  ARBITRATION. 


VIII. 

During  this  year,  1872,  Mr.  SUMNER  witnessed  what 
he  justly  deemed  one  of  the  most  important  events  that 
had  occurred  in  the  history  of  the  intercourse  of  nations 
—the  settlement  of  the  long-pending"  and  constantly  me 
nacing  difficulties  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States,  BY  ARBITRATION.  It  will  be  remembered  that 

pieces  ?  Will  those  rocks  fade  away  clean  out  of  view,  as  I  take  my  staff,  and 
swing  my  little  bundle  over  my  shoulder,  for  the  new,  solitary  journey  ?  I  thank 
God  this  shipwreck  need  not  prove  an  unmixed  disaster.  In  the  future,  I  may  find 
it  was  all  for  the  best.  *  My  regime  of  living  now  works  easy  in  all 

things.  Physically  and  intellectually  I  am  master  of  my  own  mind,  as  well  as  of  my 
own  time.  The  amount  of  work,  of  all  kinds,  I  have  done  during  the  last  few  months, 
is  amazing,  as  I  review  it.  Since  my  college  days,  I  have  had  no  such  unrestricted 
freedom  ;  nor  was  I  ever  conscious  of  acquiring  or  feeling  so  steadily  increasing  a 
momentum,  moral  and  intellectual.  I  feel  it  on  starting  from  a  short  halt  ;  every 
interruption,  voluntary  or  accidental,  seems  to  invest  the  machine  with  added  power. 
My  soul,  too,  is  fully  at  peace.  I  am  conscious  of  a  prevailing  desire  to  act  man 
fully,  and  lojally,  and  filially  towards  God;  honestly  with  myself,  and  with  jus 
tice  and  charity  towards  my  fellow-men.  I  know  how  imperfectly  I  am  doing  all 
this, — no  :  I  cannot  know  this  :  let  me  say  I  feel  something  of  it.  But  I  hear 
the  dying  thunders,  still  rolling  in  the  distance — dark  clouds  still  hang  around 
the  horizon,  and  the  red  lightning  flashes  out  angrily  from  their  rifted  masses. 
If  an  unhappy  dream  wakes  me  in  the  deep  night,  a  cold  chill  steals  over 
me,  and  I  lie  for  hours  in  the  paralysis  of  a  deathly  prostration :  but  these 
periods  occur  less  often,  and  now  and  then  some  of  the  loveliest  visions  come 
in  my  sleep.  A  few  nights  since,  I  dreamed  of  the  young  days  of  our  forest  love, 
with  all  its  rapt  embraces,  and  she  was  in  all  the  dewy  freshness  of  her  beauty.  We 
wandered  for  hours  along  the  lake,  and  strolled  under  the  wide  branches  of  the  old 
trees.  Nor  did  I  wake  till  the  sun  came  through  the  window.  How  thankful  I 
was  !  What  gentle  spirit  painted  that  divine  scene,  and  held  the  curtain  with  such 
steady  and  patient  hands? — I  shall  know  the  artist,  some  day  :  I  can  more  than  half 
guess,  now." 

"  Yes  ;  now  I  can  work.  The  few  lares  penates  left,  are  all  gathered  around  me ; 
my  tools  are  all  laid  out  on  my  work-bench,  and  I  have  dedicated  myself  afresh  to 
the  sole  object  of  existence — a  higher  life.  Had  it  not  been  for  a  lifetime  of  intel 
lectual  culture,  such  a  loss  as  I  have  gone  through,  would  have  driven  me  to  madness." 

"  Such  power  to  work,  such  breadth  of  comprehension  of  things  possible  to  be 
done,  such  acquisition  of  strength  in  geometrical  ratio,  by  unbroken  continuity,  of 
dedication  to  a  grand  thought — this  is  not  often  coincident  with  the  distracting 
cares  of  married  life." 


PEACE  THE  BEGINNING  AND   END   OF  HIS   LIFE.          587 

Mr.  SUMNER  began  his  political  life,  as  we  have  men 
tioned  in  an  early  part  of  this  volume,  in  1844,  when  he 
pronounced  the  oration  on  THE  TRUE  GRANDEUR  OF  NA 
TIONS  ;  the  burden  of  which  was  PEACE,  and  which  COB- 
DEN,  its  most  eloquent  advocate  in  Europe,  had  pronounc 
ed  the  noblest  contribution  ever  made  by  any  modern 
writer  to  the  cause  of  peace.  In  that  oration  the  memor 
able  words  were  uttered  which  resounded  through  the 
world ;  which  were  quoted  at  every  subsequent  Peace 
Convention  on  the  globe,  and  which  were  received  with 
cheers  when  his  health  was  drank  at  Geneva — "In  our 
age,  there  can  be  no  peace  that  is  not  honorable ;  there 
can  be  no  war  that  is  not  dishonorable." 

He  was  now  to  see  the  two  foremost  nations  of  the 
earth  practically  adopt  that  sentiment,  and  come  for 
ward,  setting  an  example  for  the  first  time,  on  so  broad 
a  scale,  of  yielding  up  all  their  claims  and  disputes  to 
the  awards  of  a  peaceful  arbitration.  How  far  his  re 
peated  and  noble  efforts  in  behalf  of  this  cause,  had  been 
influential  in  bringing  about  this  grand  result,  can,  of 
course,  never  be  known.  But  in  conversation  with  some 
of  the  ablest  men  who  assisted  in  that  arbitration,  I  was 
left  without  a  doubt  that  not  one  of  them  had  escaped 
the  influence  of  the  mind  of  CHARLES  SUMNER  during 
the  last  quarter  of  a  century.  Nor  could  he  consider 
that  he  had  led  his  life  in  vain,  had  he  had  no  other  re 
ward  than  the  consciousness  of  having  contributed  so 
largely  to  so  great  an  event.  It  was  the  first  triumph 
the  Peace  Party  of  the  world  had  ever  won.  It  rendered 
subsequent  victories  easier ;  it  inspired  the  lovers  of 
Peace  and  Humanity  everywhere  with  new  hope.  The 
dawn  of  a  better  day  was  approaching;  its  first  gray 
lines  were  fretting  the  east ;  the  lark  was  singing  at 


588  THE   OLIVE  BRANCH  TO   ALL  NATIONS. 

heaven's  gate ;  and  the  Dove  of  Peace  was  on  its  flight, 
with  the  olive-branch  in  her  mouth,,  to  all  the  nations. 


SENATOR    SUMNER'S    WILL. 

Mr.  Francis  V.  Balch,  the  executor  of  Senator  Sumner's  will,  entered  it  for  probate 
in  Boston.     It  is  written  by  the  Senator's  own  hand  : 

1.  I  bequeath  to  Henry  W.  Longfellow,  Francis  V.  Balch  and  Edward  L.  Pierce, 
as  trustees,  all  my  papers,  manuscripts  and  letter-books,  to  do  with  them  what  they 
think  best,  with  power  to  destroy  them,  to  distribute  them  in  some  public  library,  or 
to  make  extracts  from  them  for  publication. 

2.  I  bequeath  to  the  trustees  above  mentioned   $3,000,  or   so  much  as  may  be 
needed   to  complete   the   edition  of  my  speeches   and  papers,  should  the  same   be 
unfinished  at  my  death.     It  is  hoped  that  no  part  of  this  sum  will  be  needed. 

3.  I  bequeath  to  the  library  of  Harvard  College  my  books  and  autographs,  whether 
in   Washington  or  Boston,  with  the  understanding  that  duplicates  of  works  already 
belonging  to  the  college  library  may  be  sold  or  exchanged  for  its  benefit. 

4.  I  bequeath    to  the   City  of  Boston,  for   the   Art    Museum,    my   pictures   and 
engravings,   except  the   picture  known  as  the    "Miracle  of   the  Slave,"    with  the 
injunction  that  the  trustees  shall  do  with   them  what  they  think  best,  disposing  of  all 
for  the  benefit  of  the  museum. 

5.  I   bequeath  to  my  friends  of  many  years,  Henry  W.    Longfellow  and  Samuel 
G.  Howe,  my  bronzes,  to  be  divided  between  them ;  also  to  Henry  W.  Longfellow 
the  Psyche  and  that  bust  of  the  young  Augustus,  in  marble ;  to  my  friend  Joshua  B. 
Smith,  the  picture  known  as  the  "  Miracle  of  the  Slave,"  and  to  the  City  of  Boston, 
for  the  Art  Museum,  the  bust  of  myself,  by  Crawford,  taken  during  my  visit  to  Rome 
in  1839. 

6.  I  bequeath  to  the  daughters  of  Henry  W.   Longfellow  $2,000,  also   to  the 
daughters  of  Samuel  G.  Howe  $2,000,  and  to  the  daughters  of  James  T.  Furniss  of 
Philadelphia  $2,000,  which  I  ask  them  to  accept  in  token  of  my  gratitude  for  the 
friendship  their  parents  have  shown  me. 

7.  I  bequeath  to  Hannah  Richmond  Jacobs,  only  surviving  sister  of  my  mother,  an 
annuity  of  $500,  to  be  paid  by  my  executor  for  the  remainder  of  her  life. 

8.  I  direct  my  executor  to  make  all  provision  for  perpetual  care  of  my  mother's  lot 
at  Mount  Auburn. 

•  9.  I  bequeath  to  the  President  and  Fellows  of  Harvard  College  $1,000,  in  trust 
for  an  annual  prize  for  the  best  dissertation  by  any  student  of  the  College  or  any  of 
its  schools,  undergraduate  or  graduate,  on  universal  peace  and  the  methods  by  which 
war  may  be  permanently  suspended.  I  do  this  in  the  hope  of  drawing  the  attention 
of  students  to  the  practicability  of  organizing  peace  among  nations,  which  I  sincerely 
believe  may  be  done.  I  cannot  doubt  that  the  same  modes  of  decision  which  now 
prevail  between  individuals,  between  towns  and  between  smaller  communities,  may  be 
extended  to  nations. 


SENATOR  SUMNER'S  WILL.  589 

10.  All  the  residue  of  my  estate,  real  and  personal,  I   bequeath  and  devise  to  my 
executor  in  trust,  to  be  sold  at  such  time  and  in  such  way  as  he  shall  think  best,  the 
proceeds  to  be  distributed  in  two  equal  moieties,  as  follows :  One  moiety  to  be  paid 
my  sister,  Julia  Hastings,  wife  of  John  Hastings  of  San  Francisco,  Cal.,  for  her  sole 
and  exclusive  use  ;  or,  should  she  die  before  me,  then  in  equal  portions  to  her  three 
daughters  or  the  survivor,  each  portion   to  be   for  the  sole  and  exclusive  use  of  such 
daughter.     The  other  moiety  to  be  paid  to  the  President   and  Fellows  of  Harvard 
College,  in  trust,  for  the  benefit  of  the  College  library,  my  desire  being  that   the  in 
come  should  be  applied  to  the  purchasing  of  books  relating  to  politics  and  fine  arts. 
This  bequest   is  made  in  filial  regard  for  the  College.     In   selecting  especially  the 
library,  I  am  governed  by  the  consideration  that   all  my  life  I  have  been  a  user  of 
books,  and  having  few  of  my  own,  I   have  relied  on  the  libraries  of  friends  and  on 
public  libraries ;  so  that  what   I   now  do  is  only  a  return  for  what  I  have  freely  re 
ceived. 

11.  I  appoint  Francis  V.  Balch  executor  of  this  will,  and  desire  that  the  trustees 
of  my  papers  may  be  exempt  from  giving  bonds. 

In  testimony  whereof,  I  hereunto  set  my  hand  this  second  day  of  September,  1873, 
at  Boston.  CHARLES  SUMNER. 


THE   END. 


LIFE  AND  PUBLIC  SERVICES 


OF 


CHARLES    SUMNER. 


SECTION  FIRST. 
Parentage  and  Education* 


PAGE 


The  Author's  Tribute  to  Sumner 

The  Three  Great  Funerals  of  our  time — Lin 
coln,  Greeley,  Sumner 2 

Parentage  and  Auspicious  Birth 3 

Academic  and  University  Course 4 

Study  and  Practice  of  Law.     He  delivers  Law 
Lectures.     Edits  Dunlap's  Treatise 5 

SECTION  SECOND. 
European  Studies  and  Travels. 

Sails  for  Europe 6 

Travels  and  Studies  in  France,  Germany,  Italy      7 

SECTION  THIRD. 
Professional  Life,  1840. 
Lectures    at  the  Law  School.     Edits  Vesey's 
Reports.      Continues    legal    studies  and 
practice  until  1846 8-9 

SECTION  FOURTH. 
Orations  and  Political  SfeecJies. 
Enters  on  Public  Life,  1844.     Commences  war 

upon  American  Slavery 10 

Speech  on  the  True  Grandeur  of  Nations n 

Indications  of  Political  Principles 12 

Sumner's  Trials  of  Character 13 

He  joins  the  Anti-Slavery  Society 14 

Constitutional  Hostility  to  Slavery 15 

Admission  of  Texas  opposed 16 

Opposition  to  Admission  of  Missouri 17 

Slavery  made  our  own  original  sin 18 

"  Let  us  try" 19 

Massachusetts  foremost. . .  .20 


Anti-Slavery  duties  of  Whigs 21 

Conservatism  of  Everett  and  Webster 22 

Whigs  should  be  for  Freedom , . . .  23 

Duty  of  the  Whig  Party 24 

Webster  in  1820 25 

Franklin's  Abolition  Society 26 

John  Quincy  Adams 27 

Appeal  to  Webster 28 

War  with  Mexico , 29 

Mr.  Sumner  to  represent  himself. 30 

Sumner's  Rebuke  of  Winthrop 31 

Opposition  to  the  Mexican  War 32 

Winthrop's  Subterfuges 33 

Winthrop' s  Subserviency  to  Slave  Power 34 

Final  Appeal  to  Winthrop 35 

Advocacy  of  Dr.  Howe's  Election 36 

Instantly  cease  wrong-doing 37 

Friends  of  America  in  Parliament 38 

Liberty  defended  in  Parliament 39 

Fox — Barre — Burke 40 

Lord  Chatham — Duke  of  Richmond 41 

Wilkes— Fox — Sheridan 42 

The  Free-Soil  Party  coming 43 

Charles  Francis  Adams'  Noble  Course 44 

Sumner's  great  speech  at  Worcester. : 45 

Audacity  of  the  Slave  Power 46 

The  Spirit  of  the  Fathers , 47 

Freedom  Power  vs.  Slave  Power 48 

Continuance  of  the  American  Revolution 49 

Liberty — Equality — Fraternity 50 

Presidential  Nominations  at  Buffalo 51 

Sumner's  Ratification  Speech 52 

Protection  to  man  the  American  System 53 

The  Candidates — Van  Buren  and  Adams. ...  54 

Washington — Lafayette — Otis — Henry 55 

Some  Practical  Plan  for  Action 56 


592 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Speech  at  the  Worcester  Convention 57 

A  Permanent  National  Party 58 

Old  Party  Issues  Obsolete 59 

The  Founders  of  the  Republic 60 

Jefferson  an  Abolitionist 61 

Franklin's  Abolition  Petition 62 

The  Country  becomes  Pro-Slavery 63 

Catalogue  of  Slavery  Aggressions 64 

Usurpations  of  Slavery 65 

Degrading  Influence  of  Slavery 66 

The  Remedy — Slavery  Prohibition 67 

The  Wilmot  Proviso    68 

Government  must  favor  Freedom 69 

Taylor's  Administration  condemned 70 

Its  Pro-Slavery  Character 71 

A  National  Party  necessary 72 

Free-Soilism  not  Sectionalism 73 

Same  Principles  in  State  Elections 74 

Rights  of  Colored  People  to  Education 75 

His  Democratic  Christian  Soul 76 

Ostracism  of  the  Colored  Race 77 

Trial  before  the  Supreme  Court 78 

All  Men  Equal  before  the  Law 79 

The  Encyclopedic — D'Alembert — Diderot 80 

Origin  of  Equality  among  Alen 81 

Condorcet's  Declaration 82 

Declarations  of  Rights  in  France 83 

Rights  of  all  to  Schools * 84 

Courts  of  Massachusetts 85 

Exclusion  of  the  Colored  from  Schools 86 

Color — Race — Caste 87 

Barbarism  and  Cruelty  of  Caste 88 

Change  in  the  Times 89 

The  grand  Revelation  of  Christianity 90 

Benefits  of  Acquaintance 91 

Equality  before  the  Law 92 

The  Christian  Spirit  Invoked 93 

Webster's  only  Successor. 94 

Webster's  Statesmanship 95 

California  Admitted  as  a  Free  State 96 

Slavery  not  Prohibited  Elsewhere.. .'» 97 

Balance  of  Power  Overturned 98 

Denial  of  Trial  by  Jury 99 

A  worse  Tyranny  than  the  Stamp  Act 100 

His  Feelings  towards  the  Law 101 

Duties  of  Massachusetts  Men 102 

Sumner's  Election  to  the  Senate 103 

Vote  of  the  Legislature 104 

The  Press  on  his  Election. 105 

The  Boston  Journals 106 

The  Post — Commonwealth — Transcript . . . .  107 

Serenity  under  Vituperation 108 

The  Free-Soilers  of  the  Senate 109 

SECTION  FIFTH. 

Senatorial  Career. 

His  Senatorial  Career  begins no 

Mrs.  Stowe — Condition  of  the  Country in 


PA  OH 

Sumner's  Senatorial  Oath 112 

He  gets  the  Floor  at  last 113 

Petition  of  Society  of  Friends 114 

Freedom  National — Slavery  Sectional 115 


He  Disclaims  Violence  and  Discourtesy 116 

No  Compromise  Final 117 

Freedom  of  Speech  above  all 1 18 

Relations  of  the  Government  to  Slavery 119 

Slavery  and  the  National  Government 120 

Slavery  not  in  the  Preamble 121 

It  Speaks  for  Freedom 122 

Slavery  Excluded  from  the  Constitution 123 

The  Rights  of  Human  Nature 124 

Freedom  is  National 135 

Washington  Inaugurated,  April  30,  1789 126 

Not  a  Slave  under  the  National  Flag 127 

Jefferson  always  Denounced  Slavery 128 

All  the  Churches  Opposed  to  Slavery 129 

Literature  the  Foe  of  Slavery ...  130 

Franklin's  Abolition  Society 131 

Franklin's  Prayer  to  Congress 132 

Prerogatives  of  the  Constitution 133 

Persons  are  not  Property 134 

The  Constitution  cannot  Support  Slavery 135 

Surrender  of  Fugitive  Slaves 136 

The  First  Hateful  Compromise 137 

First  National  Convention 138 

No  Proposition  for  Property  in  Slaves 139 

At  Last  the  Fugitive  Stave  Bill 140 

The  Writ  of  Habeas  Corpus  Overthrown 141 

Congressional  Usurpation 142 

Madison — Morse — Franklin — Sherman 143 

Trial  by  Jury  Denied 144 

Elbridge  Gerry's  Suggestion  adopted 145 

Judicial  Decisions  for  Freedom 146 

Under  the  Common  Law 147 


Unconstitutionally  of  the  Slave  Act 148 

The  Inflexible  Samuel  Adams 149 

Boston's  Opposition  to  the  Stamp  Act 150 

Virginia  Responds  to  Boston 151 

The  Stamp  Act  is  Repealed 152 

Washington  Opposed  to  Forcible  Rendition. .  153 

Washington  Leaves  his  Slaves  Free 154 

Who  Could  Sing  for  Slavery 155 

Arago  Redeemed  from  Slavery 156 

Review  of  the  Argument 157 

Slave — that  Litany  of  Wrong  and  Woe 158 

The  Final  Conclusion 159 

Injustice  cannot  Command  Obedience 160 

Duty  of  Disobeying  the  Slave  Law 161 

Senator  Kale's  Praises 162 

Senator  Chase's  Eulogium 163 

Seward,  Wilson,  and  the  Phillips  unite 164 

European  Opinions  of  the  Speech 165 

Downing,  the  Landscape  Gardener 166 

Addresses  the  Free-Soil  Convention 167 

Old  Parties  Pro-Slavery 168 

New  Parties  always  Triumph 169 


INDEX. 


593 


PAGE 

The  Rising  Party  of  Freedom 170 

Courses  of  Free-Soil  Lectures. » 171 

Sumner  at  the  Metropolitan  Theatre 172 

Change  Wrought  in  Twenty  Years 173 

Special  Duties  of  the  North 174 

Necessity  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Enterprise 175 

The  Law  of  Slavery 176 

An  Outrage  on  Man  and  God 177 

Alleged  Distinction  of  Race 178 

One  Great  Human  Family 179 

A  Human  Being  not  Property 180 

Practicability  of  Anti-Slavery  Enterprise 181 

The  Question  to  be  openly  Confronted 182 

Right  Cannot  be  Founded  on  Wrong 183 

Emancipation  not  Dangerous 184 

Instant  Freedom  safe  for  the  Slave 185 

Good  of  the  Enterprise  Already 186 

Inherent  Dignity  of  the  Enterprise 187 

Freedom  the  Darling  of  History 188 

Hard  Words — Personal  Disparagement 189 

At  Last  there  is  a  North 190 

The  God  Thor,  and  his  Cup 191 

Why  Slavery  Concerns  the  North 192 

Masterdom  of  Slave  Oligarchy 193 

Giant  Strength  used  Heartlessly 194 

The  Great  Duty  of  the  North 195 

Mr.  Hayes'  Noble  Resignation 196 

This  Enterprise  must  go  on 197 

Inscriptions  on  Achilles'  Shield 198 

The  Press  on  the  Lecture 199 

Count  Gurowski— Mr.  Seward 200 

Reasons  against  Secrecy  in  the  Senate 201 

Speech  in  Faneuil  Hall 202 

He  addresses  only  Republicans 203 

The  Question  National  and  Local 204 

Old  Abolitionism  in  Massachusetts 205 

The  Constitution  Ordained  for.Freedom 206 

Horace  Mann  in  Congress 207 

What  the  Slave  Oligarchy  Appropriates 208 

Inferiority  of  Slave  States" 209 

Usurpations  of  Slavery 210 

Every  Demand  of  Slavery  Conceded 211 

The  Missouri  Compromise  Abolished 212 

Outrages  in  Kansas 213 

To  Build  another  Slave  State 214 

Prostration  of  the  Slave  Oligarchy 215 

Wedded  to  Freedom 216 

The  Rip  Van  Winkle  Whigs 217 

The  Great  Phalanx  now  Rallying 218 

No  Check  on  Emigration 219 

WThat  Foreigners  have  done  for  us 220 

Franklin  the  Apostle  of  Freedom 221 

Principles  of  the  New  Party 222 

Adams — Otis — Patrick  Henry 223 

Corner-stone  of  the  New  Party 224 

Repeal  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act  asked 225 

Sumner  Enforces  the  Petition 2?6 

Boston — Stamp  Act — Tea  Act 227 


PAGE 

Boston  led  the  Column  of  Freedom 228 

Pitt  Demanded  Repeal 229 

Reply  to  Assailants 230 

Answers  Mason  and  Butler 231 

Jackson's  Words  in  1832 232 

Duties  under  the  Oath 233 

Far-famed  Resolutions  of  1798 234 

A  Tribute  to  Massachusetts 235 

No  Slave  born  in  Massachusetts 236 

Massachusetts  Exterminates  Slavery 237 

No  Injustice  to  South  Carolina 238 

Quota  of  Revolutionary  Troops 239 

The  South  Always  Behind 240 

General  Greene's  Testimony 241 

Ramsay's  History  of  the  Revolution 243 

Military  Weakness  of  Southern  States 243 

The  Rights  of  Human  Nature 244 

The  Crime  Against  Kansas 245 

Vice-President  Wilson's  Account 246 

Analysis  of  the  Speech 247 

Assault  on  Sumner 248 

Meeting  at  Seward's  House 249 

A  Committee  of  Inquiry 250 

Behavior  of  Senators 251 

Toombs  Justifies  Brooks 252 

Brooks  Challenges  Wilson 253 

Brooks  Expelled — Keitt  Resigns 254 

The  South  Endorses  Brooks 255 

Buchanan  Approves  the  Assault 256 

Burlingame  Denounces  the  Assault 257 

Brooks'  Challenge  Accepted 258 

Voice  of  Faneuil  Hall 259 

Fate  of  Keitt  and  Brooks 260 

Europe  with  the  Union 261 

The  Approaching  Conflict .    262 

The  Crime  Against  Kansas 263 

A  Tyrannical  Usurpation 264 

Fratricidal,  Patricidal  War 265 

The  Woe  and  Shame  of  the  Crime 266 

Its  Origin  and  Extent 267 

Forced  on  a  Reluctant  North 268 

How  the  Crime  was  Engendered 269 

The  Nebraska  Act  a  Swindle 270 

Its  Offensive  Provisions. . . . 


is 271 

It  Cleared  the  Way  for  Slavery 272 

A  Picture  of  Direful  Truth 273 

How  the  Territory  was  Overrun 274 

Grand  Invasion  of  the  Territory 275 

The  Bursting  of  the  Storm 276 

The  Governor's  Servility  to  Slavery 277 

Five  Invasions  of  Kansas 278 

Civilization  Averts  her  Face 279 

Bowie-knives  and  Revolvers 280 

How  the  Crime  was  done 281 

Foreigners  Impose  a  Constitution 282 

Squatter  Sovereignty 283 

Irrefragable  Testimony 284 

Slavery  Erected  in  Kansas 258 


594 


INDEX. 


Apologies  for  the  Crime 286 

The  Apology  Tyrannical 287 

Apology  Imbecile 288 

Apology  Absurd 289 

Remedies  Proposed 290 

Remedy  of  Tyranny — of  Folly 291 

Remedy  of  Civil  War 292 

Usurpation  must  be  Overthrown 293 

Reaching  the  Goal 294 

The  American  President  Guilty 295 

SECTION  SIXTH. 
The  Interval  of  Illness  and  Repose. 

His  Health  when  Assaulted 296 

The  Seaside  and  the  Mountains 297 

Welcome  of  Massachusetts 298 

His  Reception  Speech ._ 299 

His  Portrait  of  his  Mother  State 300 

Some  of  Her  False  Children 301 

Tribute  to  Josiah  Quinoy 302 

Re-election  to  the  Senate 303 

His  Sojourn  in  Europe 304 

Dr.  Brown-Sequard 305 

Return  to  the  Senate 306 


SECTION   SEVENTH. 
Return  to  the  Senate. 

Again  in  the  Front  of  Battle 307 

Speech  on  the  Barbarism  of  Slavery 308 

Responses  to  His  Great  Speech 309 

The  Gathering  Storm 3  to 

The  Barbarism  of  Slavery  Portrayed 311 

No  Personal  Griefs  to  Utter 312 

Slavery  must  be  Discussed 313 

Arrogant  Assumptions  of  Slavery 314 

Satan  always  Satan 315 

Slavery's  First  Assumption 316 

Two  Civilizations  Impossible 317 

He  lets  Slavery  Paint  Itself 318 

The  Slave  for  the  Master's  Use 319 

The  Abrogation  of  Marriage 320 

Abrogation  of  the  Parental  Relation 321 

Appropriation  of  the  Slave's  Toil 322 

Jean  Jacques  Rousseau — Dr.  Channing 323 

Degradation  of  a  Whole  Race 324 

Origin  of  Slavery  in  Africa 325 

Home  of  the  Slave  Code 326 

Practical  Result  of  Slavery 327 

The  Harpy  defies  the  Banquet 328 

Slave  and  Free  States  Contrasted 329 

Agriculture — Mining — Mechanics 330 

Domestic  and  Foreign  Commerce 331 

Railroads — Post-offices — Charity 332 

Educational  Establishments 333 

In  Systems  of  Common  Schools 334 


Public  Libraries 335 

The  Press — Printers — Publishers 336 

Authors — Patents — Emigration 337 

Life-giving  Power  of  Freedom 338 

The  Barbary  of  the  Union 339 

Mr.  Chestnut,  of  South  Carolina 340 

His  Uncontrollable  Rage 341 

Madness  Precedes  Destruction.' 342 

Campaign  Speech  at  Cooper  Institute 343 

Lincoln's  Administration  Ratified 344 

SECTION  EIGHTH. 

The  War  of  the  Rebellion. 

First  Shot  into  Fort  S  umter 345 

Dead  Nations  never  Return 346 

Vision  of  Liberty  in  the  New  World 347 

Our  Progress  till  1860 348 

Arrested  at  our  Belshazzar  Feast 349 

Sumner's  Mighty  Influence 350 

Another  Speech  at  Worcester 351 

He  Invokes  Emancipation 352 

He  Exults  in  View  of  the  Past 353 

Emancipation  would  end  the  War 354 

The  Author's  Intercourse  with  Mr.  Sumner. . .   355 

Sumner  Urges  Lincoln  in  Vain 356 

Pro-Slavery  Policy  of  the  Cabinet 357 

Gen.  Butler's  Contrabands 358 

Reasons  why  Lincoln  Hung  Back 359 

Sumner  Firmly  for  Emancipation 360 

Sumner  again  at  Cooper  Institute 361 

One  Step  towards  Emancipation 362 

Death  of  Col.  Baker  at  Ball's  Bluff 363 

Washington  during  the  War 364 

A  Secession  Capital 365 

A  Den  of  the  She-vipers  Broken  up 366 

The  News  at  Willard's 367 

Who  Owns  the  Mississippi  ? 368 

Baker's  Grave  in  California 369 

Baker's  Last  Speech  in  the  Senate 370 

Sumner's  Eulogy  on  Baker 371 

Who  Killed  Baker? 372 

Codifying  the  National  Statutes 373 

No  Patents  for  Colored  Inventors 374 

On  the  Seizure  of  Mason  and  Slidell 375 

Circumstances  of  the  Seizure 376 

Rash  Proposals  in  Congress 377 

England  Bent  on  War 378 

British  Conduct  Severely  Criticised 379 

Why  the  Commissioners  were  Surrendered . . .  380 

Sumner's  Speech  on  the  Trent  Affair 381 

Condition  of  Mexico  in  1862 382 

Minister  Corwin's  Opinion 383 

End  of  an  Insane  Expedition 384 

A  Prophetic  Letter 385 

Slavery  Abolished  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  386 

Sumner's  Bright  and  Dark  Hours 387 

Recognition  of  Liberia  and  Hayti 388 


INDEX. 


595 


PAGE 

Violent  Opposition  from  the  South 389 

An  Evening  with  the  Haytian  Minister 390 

A  Description  of  Him 391 

Treaty  for  Suppressing  the  Slave  Trade 392 

Sumner  Milestones 393 

Speech  against  Rendition  of  Fugitives 394 

The  Battle-Flag  Resolution 395 

Sumner  Endorsed  by  Gen.  Scott 396 

Answer  to  "  How  will  all  this  End  ?  " 397 

An  American  Slave  Empire 398 

Gov.  Stanley  Closes  Colored  Schools 399 

Sumner  Calls  for  Information 400 

Sumner's  Confidence  in  Lincoln 401 

Mr.  Lincoln's  Character  Drawn  402 

Mr.  Lincoln's  Written  Opinion 403 

Sumner  on  Our  Foreign  Relations 404 

How  Europe  Felt  Toward  Us 405 

Friendship  of  Russia 406 

Bayard  Taylor's  Ode  to  Russia 407 

England's  Feeling  in  Contrast 408 

Insincerity  of  English  Professions 409 

Hatred  of  England's  Ruling  Classes 410 

Dr.  Beattie's  Address  to  Our  Poets 411 

Starvation  in  England 412 

England  Owed  Us  no  Good-will 413 

Plain  Letter  to  Lord  John  Russell 414 

His  Unworthy  Conduct 415 

England  Our  Step-mother 416 

Sumner  for  Colored  Troops 417 

Author's  Historic   Statement 418 

Negro  Troops  in  Washington's  Army   419 

Colored  Heroes  at  Red  Bank 420 

Commodore  Chauncey's  Black  Sailors 421 

Gen.  Jackson's  Proclamation  in  1814 422 

Jackson's  Address  to  Colored  Troops 423 

Advantages  of  Colored  Soldiers 424 

180,000  Colored  Troops  in  the  Union  Army.. .   425 

Senator  Arnold  on  Public  Defence 426 

Improvement  in  the  Colored  Race 427 

An  Evening's  Reading  to  Sumner 428 

Heroism  in  the  Hospital 429 

Dying  Away  from  Home 430 

Scenes  in  the  Washington  Hospitals 431 

A  Brave  Oneida  County  Boy 432 

The  Two  Loadstones — Love,  Country 433 

Coming  Back  to  Life 434 

Is  Bella  Well? 435 

Liberty  Cheap  at  Any  Price 436 

Sumner  again  at  Cooper  Institute 437 

The  Morning  Star  of  London 438 

Once  More  in  Faneuil  Hall 439 

Elected  for  the  Third  Term 440 

Horace  Greeley  on  Charles  Sumner 441 

Effect  of  Lincoln's  Proclamation 442 

Colored  Suffrage  in  District  of  Columbia 443 

Sympathy  with  Emperor  Alexander 444 

The  Emperor  of  Russia 445 

How  to  Treat  the  Rebel  States 446 


PAGE 

Military  Rule  in  the  South 447 

Possible  Abuse  of  the  Power 448 

Carpet-bagism  in  the  South 449 

The  Southern  States  Vacated 450 

Three  Sources  of  Congressional  Power 451 

Meaning  of  Republican  Reform 452 

Sumner's  Constitutional  Argument 453 

The  Proclamation  of  Emancipation 454 

Death-Knell  of  American  Slavery 455 

Slavery  Dead  Never  Lives  Again 456 

SECTION  NINTH. 
Emancipation  of  the  African  Race. 

Slavery  Dies  Hard 457 

Bureau  of  Freedmen's  Affairs 458 

Speech  on  the  Freedmen's  Bureau 459 

Helplessness  of  the  Emancipated 460 

First  Commission  on  Freedmen 461 

Letter  of  Counsel  to  Africano-Americans 462 

Resolutions  Offered  for  Retaliation 463 

Barbarity  Proposed  for  Barbarity 464 

Sumner's  Civilized  Substitute 465 

New  Pledges  for  Ending  the  Rebellion 466 

Speech  Sustaining  the  Substitute 467 

On  Building  the  Pacific  Railroad 468 

Union  of  Mississippi  and  Lakes 469 

j  Amendment  Abolishing  Slavery 470, 

I  The  Constitution  Opposed  to  Slavery 471 

The  Constitution  Analyzed 472 

Constitutional  Slavery  an  Outlaw 473 

Wilson's  Anti-Slavery  Measures 474 

The  Dark  in  the  White  House 475 

j  Hints  for  Union  Speeches 476 

I  How  Slavery  has  Destroyed  Nations 477 

|  Debt  of  America  to  Africa 478 

j  Thirteen  Million  Africans  Immolated 479 

I  Counts  in  our  Terrible  Indictment 480 

What  Africa  has  Suffered 481 

All  Hail !  Niobe  of  the  Nations 482 

Duty  to  Fallen  Soldiers 483 

Plea  for  National  Cemeteries 484 

Congress  Adopts  the  Plan 485 


SECTION  TENTH. 
Downfall  of  the  Rebellion. 

Gen.  Lee's  Parting  with  His  Soldiers 486 

Lincoln's  Visit  to  Richmond 487 

Lincoln's  Assassination 488 

Sumner's  Eulogy  of  Lincoln 489 

Anti-Slavery  Measures  of  Congress 490 

\Vhat  Slavery  had'  been 491 

How  Slavery  Died 492 

Final  Extinction  of  Slavery 493 

Availability  a  Fatal  Policy   494 

Andrew  Johnson  becomes  President 495 


596 


INDEX. 


Andrew  Johnson's  Character 496 

The  Augean  Stables  Cleansed 497 

The  Three  Great  Amendments 498 

The  Johnson-Clarendon  Treaty. 499 

Sumner's  Speech  on  the  Treaty 500 

Civil  Rights  Supplement  Bill 501 

Justice  to  the  Colored  Race  Everywhere 502 

The  Presidency  as  a  Trust 503 

Sumner's  Letter  to  Colored  Citizens 504 

The  Wonderful  Year  1870 505 

Joy  in  Washington  over  the  Ratification 506 

Sumner's  Response  to  the  Serenade 507 

The  San  Domingo  Scheme 508 

Colored  Convention  in  South  Carolina 509 

Address  to  the  American  People 510 

Sumner's  Letter  to  the  Colored  Convention. . .  511 

His  Advice  to  the  Convention 512 

Colored  National  Convention,  New  Orleans..  513 

A  Friend's  Last  Evening  with  Sumner 514 

Sumner  at  Home  515 

Last  Speech  in  the  Senate 516 

SECTION   ELEVENTH. 
His  Death,  and  Public  Honors  to  His  Memory. 

Descriptions  of  the  Closing  Scenes 517 

His  Friends  at  His  Last  Dinner 518 

Feeling  in  Washington.     Mr.  Dana's  Sun. . . .  519 

Sumner's  Last  Hours 520 

Friends  around  his  Death-bed 521 

He  Dies  at  2:50  P.M.,  March  n,  1874 522 

Public  Obsequies  at  the  Capitol 523 

The  Funeral  Train  to  Boston 524 

Demonstrations  of  Respect  and  Grief 525 

Public  Meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall 526 

Hon.  James  B.  Smith's  Speech 527 

Feeling  in  the  Assembly 528 

Charles  Francis  Adams'  Letter 529 

Senator  Anthony  Delivers  the  Body 530 

Saturday  Night  of  Silence  and  Gloom 531 

Decorations  of  Doric  Hall 532 

Chaste  Simplicity  of  Boston's  Tributes 533 

Ceremonies  at  King's  Chapel 534  | 

The  Procession  to  Mount  Vernon 535 

Last  Scenes  at  the  Grave 536 

Tributes  from  the  Boston  Pulpit  537  j 

James  Freeman  Clarke's  Discourse 538  \ 

The  Bloody  Coat — Capt.  John  Brown 539 

The  Republic  in  Mourning 540  ! 

His  Work  was  Complete 541  | 

Charles  Sumner  and  Edmund  Burke 542  ; 


Tributes  by  Chapin  and  Frothingham 543 

The  Miracle  of  the  Slave  Picture 544 

His  Character  by  Beecher 545 

Tributes  by  Putnam  and  Talmage 546 

Discourses  by  Hazen  and  MacArthur 547 

The  Louisville  Courier-Journal. 548 

The  Chicago  and  Cincinnati  Press 549 

Indiana,  Michigan  and  Ohio 550 

Pittsburg,  Richmond — Dr.  Garnet 551 

Sumner's  Letter  about  Battle-Flags 552 

Spirit  of  the  English  Journals 553 

Daily  News — The  Globe — The  Echo 554 

The  Examiner  a.nA  Anglo-American  Times.  555 

Worthy  Tribute  to  Sumner's  Character 556 

His  Portrait  by  the  Boston  Journal 557 

Chaplet  Woven  by  Grace  Greenwood 558 

The  Silent  House  and  Vacant  Chair 559 

SECTION  TWELFTH. 
His  Character  and  Fame. 

The  Stern  Duty  of  the  Historian 560 

Sumner's  Rupture  with  the  Administration. . .  561 

The  Judgment  of  the  New  York  Tribune 562 

Justice  from  the  Muse  of  History 563 

Sumner's  Suppressed  Speech 564 

Why  Sumner  opposed  the  President's  Scheme.  565 

He  feels  Forced  to  the  Revelation 566 

Sumner  in  Conference  with  Secretary  Fish . . .  567 

Removal  of  Mr.  Motley 568 

The  Secretary's  Reply  to  Mr.  Motley 569 

Official  Insults  to  the  Senator 570 

The  Secretary's  Conduct  set  forth 571 

Official  Misrepresentations 572 

The  True  Reasons  for  Motley's  Removal 573 

A  Full  Revelation  of  the  Facts 574 

Sumner's  Relations  with  Secretary  Fish 575 

Motley's  Official  Conduct 576 

Our  Insulted  Minister 577 

Sacrifice  of  Senator  and  Minister 578 

Senator  Wilson's  Wise  Counsels 579 

Sumner's  Brief  Married  Life 580 

Pure  and  Beautiful  Love  of  a  Mother 581 

When  Marriage  is  a  Leap  in  the  Dark 582 

Marriage  not  Always  Best 583 

Advantages  of  Personal  Freedom 584 

Sumner's  One  All-engrossing  Love 585 

Settlement  with  England  by  Arbitration 586 

Peace  the  Beginning  and  End  of  His  Life. . . .  587 

The  Olive  Branch  to  All  Nations 588 

Senator  Sumner's  Will 589 


AGENTS  WANTED  FOR  THE  GREAT  WORK 

ENTITLED 

"JESUS." 


Pastor  "  Church  of  the  Strangers"  New  York. 


THIS  undertaking,  in  spite  of  the  numerous  Lives  of  Christ  that  have  al 
ready  appeared,  is  both  a  bold  and  unique  one.  It  is  an  acceptance  by  a 
Christian  Warrior  of  the  Infidel  Rationalist's  gage  of  battle,  and  is  a  scholarly, 
patient,  and  exhaustive  analysis  of  the  life,  words,  and  character  of  Jesus,  at 
least  rationally,  if  not  rationalistically  considered — bestowing,  in  fact,  the 
same  treatment,  the  same  laws  of  evidence  and  methods  of  deduction  adopt 
ed  by  Strauss  and  Renan,  but  widely  differing  from  those  writers  in  the  con 
clusions  arrived  at.  It  is  bold,  for  the  reason  that  Infidelity  in  all  ages  has 
relied  and  boasted  its  reliance  upon  the  application  of  pure  reason  for  con 
troverting  the  truths  held  most  sacred  by  Christians ;  and  unique,  because  no 
Christian  writer  has  ever  before  attempted  to  establish  the  divinity  of  Jesus 
with  the  very  weapons  chosen  to  disprove  it.  It  is  in  no  sense  a  theologic 
or  dogmatic  work,  and  is  not  to  be  confounded  with  "Lives  of  Christ"  It 
is  simply  a  "Life  of  Jesus"  and  if  the  author  succeeds  in  establishing  the  fact 
that  Jesus  was  the  Christ,  it  must  be  considered  as  the  product  of  his  reason 
ing,  and  not  an  assumption  ignoring  the  very  pith  of  the  controversy  between 
Infidelity  and  Christianity.  It  is  a  work  the  want  of  which  has  been  sorely 
felt  since  the  books  of  Renan  and  Strauss,  to  complete  the  bulwark  of  Chris 
tian  defence  from  its  new  and  most  dangerous  foe,  insidiously  clothed  in  the 
garb  of  philosophy,  and  seductively  disguised  in  the  language  of  reason.  No 
Christian  can  afford  to  be  without  a  copy,  as  a  perusal  of  its  pages  will  not 
only  increase  and  confirm  his  own  faith,  but  supply  him  the  means  of  success 
ful  resistance  to  the  sceptical  objections  of  unbelievers.  The  style  is  simple 
and  unpretending,  and  well  adapted  to  a  thorough  and  practical  understand, 
ing  of  the  whole  matter,  while  nothing  material  to  the  establishment  of  his 
conclusions  has  been  sacrificed  to  an  ostentatious  or  affected  simplicity — 
avoiding,  on  the  one  hand  the  pedantry  of  the  schools,  and  on  the  other,  the 
charlatanry  of  the  demagogue.  Buy  it,  read  it,  and  judge  for  yourselves. 

Cdp33  Clergymen,  Students,  and  others,  with  a  little  spare  time,  can  do  a 
great  work  for  Christianity,  and  at  the  same  time  make  good  financial  returns 
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